Context: Recently, Researchers from GNS Science in New Zealand announced that they'd mapped the shape and size of the continent in unprece dented detail. They put their maps on an interactive website so that users can virtually explore the continent, with an aim to raise awareness about it in public.
Background 

• Zealandia is a 2 million-square-mile continent east of Australia, beneath modern-day New Zealand. Scientists discovered the sprawling underwater mass in the 1990s, then gave it formal continent status in 2017. 
• Reaching a significant milestone to the quest that began in 2017, scientists have now mapped the submerged landmass of the eighth continent, Zealandia.

94% of Zealandia is submerged

• According to reports, at least 94 per cent of Zealandia’s two million square miles are underwater. Therefore, the mapping of the entire continent was a challenge for researchers across the world. 
• The scientists at GNS have contributed to the global effort of researchers to map the entire ocean floor of the world by 2030 including the depiction of coastlines and territorial limits. 

Key Points

• Zealandia continent doesn't appear on most conventional maps because almost 95% of its landmass is submerged thousands of feet beneath the Pacific Ocean. 
• The new maps reveal Zealandia's bathymetry (the shape of the ocean floor) as well as its tectonic history, showing how volcanism and tectonic motion have shaped the continent over millions of years. 
• These maps to provide an accurate, complete and up-to-date picture of the geology of the New Zealand and southwest Pacific area, better than before.

About Zealandia continent 

• Zealandia, also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago. 
• It has variously been described as a continental fragment, a microcontinent, a submerged continent, and a continent. 
• Compression across the boundary has uplifted the Southern Alps, although due to rapid erosion their height reflects only a small fraction of the uplift. 
• Volcanism on Zealandia has also taken place repeatedly in various parts of the continental fragment before, during and after it rifted away from the supercontinent Gondwana. 
• Zealandia consists of islands such as New Zealand, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island Group, Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs.