GONE-TINENT! Long-lost ‘failed’ continent hidden under 6,500ft-deep sea between US and Europe – experts find why doomed land vanished

 It's linked to the failed break-up of North America and Greenland

A GIANT chunk of a long-lost "microcontinent" that never fully formed has been found.

The failed land mass between North America and Europe was born around 58 million years ago – but was ultimately doomed.

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The small yellow section in the middle labelled DSPM is the lost proto-microcontinent that never truly formedCredit: cdn.com

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The microcontinent is lurking below the deep waters of the Davis Strait, which separates Canada and GreenlandCredit: Getty Images

Evidence of the continental mishap was found beneath the Davis Strait.

This is an arm of the Arctic Ocean north of the Labrador Sea between Canada and Greenland.

Scientists say the seafloor beneath the waterway is "anomalously thick" – and now they know why.

It's the eerie remains of what experts are calling the Davis Strait Proto-Microcontinent (or DSPM)

The 12- to 15-mile thick segment of crust lies beneath the strait, which gets as deep as 6,500 feet in parts.

"We propose that the Davis Strait High and the surrounding region of thick continental crust represents a proto-microcontinent," said Luke Longley, of the University of Derby, in a study published in Gondwana Research.

A microcontinent is a piece of continent that broke off from a main continental mass to become its own distinct chunk.

The "proto" part means that it didn't achieve "full crustal separation", according to scientists.Another three to five million years later, the DSPM was created.

Ultimately North America and Greenland (which is a European territory, but physically part of the North American continent) didn't fully split apart.

This process largely ended 48 million years ago, when a fault formed that created a boundary that stopped the rifting "before continental break-up could occur", the scientists said.

And around 33 million years ago, seafloor spreading meant Greenland rotated and collided with Canada's Ellesmere Island, totally ending the shift.

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The Davis Strait lies over a region of submerged land where North America and Greenland were splitting – but the breakaway never finishedCredit: Getty Images

So the DSPM is just a small chunk of a continent that could've formed as part of the break-up – but never truly did.

The North American continent itself is enormous, covering around 9.54 million square miles.

It represents around 16.5% of Earth's land, and is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa.

The massive continent – which still does include Greenland – has a population of more than 592 million people.

CONTINENTAL CONFUSION – THE DIFFERENT LISTS

There are several ways to categorize continents. Here are just a few...

Continuous Landmasses (x4):

• Afro-Eurasia
• America
• Antarctica
• Australia

Physiographic Regions (x5):

• Africa
• Eurasia
• America
• Antarctica
• Australia

Geological Continents (x6):

• Africa
• Eurasia
• North America
• South America
• Antarctica
• Australia

United Nations continental regions (x6):

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• America
• Antarctica
• Australia

Approximate "parts" of the world (x7):

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• North America
• South America
• Antarctica
• Australia

It was originally part of the Pangaea supercontinent.

But North and South America split off from Europe and Africa around 200 million years ago.