Long-lost “failed” continent hidden beneath the 6,500-foot-deep sea between the US and Europe – experts discover why doomed lands disappeared

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

The faulted landmass between North America and Europe was born about 58 million years ago – but was ultimately doomed.

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Evidence of the continental crash 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 seabed beneath the waterway is “abnormally thick” – and now they know why.

They are the mysterious remains of what experts call the Davis Strait Proto-Microcontinent (or DSPM).

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

“We propose that Davis Strait and the surrounding region of thick continental crust represent 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 has separated from a main continental mass to become a distinct piece.

The “proto” part means that “complete separation from the crust” has not been achieved, according to the scientists.

It’s all linked to the great separation between North America and Greenland, which occurred 120 million years ago.

And this process intensified about 61 million years ago, with the floor below Davis Strait spreading more rapidly.

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) did not fully separate.

This process largely ended 48 million years ago, when a fault formed that created a boundary that stopped division “before continental breakup could occur,” the scientists said.

And about 33 million years ago, seafloor spreading caused Greenland to rotate and collide with Ellesmere Island in Canada, ending the shift entirely.

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So the DSPM is just a small piece of a continent that could have formed as part of the breakup – but never truly did.

The North American continent itself is huge, covering about 9.54 million square miles.

It represents about 16.5% of the Earth’s land and is the third largest continent in size, after Asia and Africa.

The huge continent – ​​which also includes Greenland – has a population of more than 592 million people.

It was originally part of the supercontinent Pangea.

But North and South America separated from Europe and Africa about 200 million years ago.