Continental crustal fragments, partially synonymous with microcontinents, are fragments of continents that have been broken off from main continental masses forming distinct islands, often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin. All continents are fragments; the terms 'continental fragment' and 'microcontinent' are restricted to those smaller than Australia. Other than perhaps Zealandia, they are not known to contain a craton or fragment of a craton. Continental fragments include some seamounts and underwater plateaus.
Some microcontinents are fragments of Gondwana or other ancient cratonic continents: Zealandia, which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia; Madagascar; the northern Mascarene Plateau, which includes the Seychelles; the island of Timor,etc. Other islands, such as several in the Caribbean Sea, are composed largely of granitic rock as well, but all continents contain both granitic and basaltic crust, and there is no clear boundary as to which islands would be considered microcontinents under such a definition. The Kerguelen Plateau is a large igneous province formed by a volcanic hot spot, but was associated with the breakup of Gondwana, was for a time above water, and is therefore considered to be a microcontinent, though not a continental fragment, whereas other hotspot islands such as Iceland and Hawaii are considered neither microcontinents nor continental fragments. This is not a choice in the classification of all islands: The British Isles, Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Newfoundland for example are within the continental shelves of their adjacent continents, separated from the mainland by inland seas flooding its margins.
Several islands in the eastern Indonesian archipelago are considered continental fragments, although this is a controversial theory. These include Sumba, Timor (Nusa Tenggara), Banggai-Sulu Islands (Sulawesi), Obi, southern Bacan, and the Buru-Seram-Ambon complex (Maluku).
- Continental fragments (pieces of Pangaea smaller than Sahul)
- East Tasman Plateau
- Gilbert Seamount
- Jan Mayen Microcontinent
- Madagascar
- Mascarene Plateau
- Mauritia
- Parts of Wallaby Plateau
- Possibly Sumba, Timor, and other islands of eastern Indonesia; Sulawesi was formed via the subduction of a microcontinent
- Rockall Plateau
- South Orkney Microcontinent
- Zealandia
- Other microcontinents
- Barbados
- Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and other granitic Caribbean islands
- Kerguelen Plateau
Famous quotes containing the word fragment:
“There is no mystery in a looking glass until someone looks into it. Then, though it remains the same glass, it presents a different face to each man who holds it in front of him. The same is true of a work of art. It has no proper existence as art until someone is reflected in it—and no two will ever be reflected in the same way. However much we all see in common in such a work, at the center we behold a fragment of our own soul, and the greater the art the greater the fragment.”
—Harold C. Goddard (1878–1950)