![]() ![]() Continental rock can also stretch and thin, pushing it partly below sea level. Even though continental rock is usually light enough to stay above sea level, it doesn't always remain above water. Continents, on the other hand, tend to stay on the surface of the Earth. "They get recycled," Stock told Live Science. When tectonic plates bump into each other, areas made of ocean crust often get shoved under continental crust and back into the magma. Using that definition, geologists recognize a continent called Zealandia that is even smaller than Australia. For geologists, continents are large areas of contiguous continental crust. ![]() "They are composed of rocks that are less dense than the rocks in the ocean basins."īoth kinds of rock exist on tectonic plates, pieces of Earth's crust that float around on the hot magma beneath the planet's surface. "Continents have a specific crustal structure," said Joann Stock, a professor of geology and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. ![]()
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