Scientists may have discovered a lost continent under the Indian Ocean.

The discovery, made by a team of University of Oslo scientists led by Trond Torsvik, theorizes that the mass of land dubbed Mauritia separated when India began to drift north of Madagascar. At this point, the continent sank beneath the surface of the ocean.

The team of researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing beach sand on the volcanic island of Mauritius, located about 559 miles east of Madagascar. Analysis of the sand uncovered approximately 20 zircons, small zirconium silicate crystals that have an enhanced capacity to resist erosion and chemical change. While the oldest basalts on the island are about 8.9 million years old, these zircons are much older, having crystallized over 660 million years ago. The team suggests that the island's zircons were brought to the surface by recent volcanic eruptions.

"Mauritius itself is located over on a bank which stretches from Mauritius itself, through what's called the Mascarene Plateau, up towards the Seychelles," says Australian National University geology professor Richard Arculus. "We've known for a while that that's likely to be a micro-continent left behind as India has ruptured away from Madagascar."

The study also suggests that various continental crust fragments are located beneath the Indian Ocean's floor. This leads to the proposition that similar sunken continents may exist in other oceans as well. Such discoveries would require continued analysis. However, the group of Oslo scientists feel they may be onto something.

"At the moment the Seychelles is a piece of granite, or continental crust, which is sitting practically in the middle of the Indian Ocean," says lead researcher Trond Torsvik. "But once upon a time, it was sitting north of Madagascar. And what we are saying is that maybe this was much bigger, and there are many of these continental fragments that are spread around in the ocean."

The study was published Sunday, Feb. 24 in Nature Geoscience.