Zealandia is an intriguing continental fragment submerged beneath the oceans between eastern Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Deep, sediment-filled basins were formed as tectonic forces stretched Zealandia before it ultimately fractured and separated from Australia.
Geoscience Australia and the Japan Agency of Marine Earth Science and Technology have been collaborating since 2014 with the goal to collect deep rock cores from a northern Zealandia basin. Analysis of these rock cores will unlock a 100-million-year history of geology, tectonics, past climate, and even ancient microbial life.
A proposal for scientific drilling to several kilometres below the seafloor - the first of its kind in Australia’s maritime jurisdiction - has been approved by the International Ocean Discovery Program, one of the world’s longest running and most successful scientific collaborations. If this innovative scientific drilling is funded, it will open up many new opportunities for Australian, Japanese and international researchers to study Earth processes, climate dynamics, and the limits of life on Earth.