Lemuria
<p ><b>Lemuria</b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɨ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >m</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >jʊər</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >i</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria(continent)#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup> is the name of a hypothetical "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_lands" title="Lost lands" >lost land</a>" variously located in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean" title="Indian Ocean" >Indian</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean" title="Pacific Ocean" >Pacific</a> Oceans. The concept's 19th-century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogeography" title="Biogeography" >biogeography</a>; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics" title="Plate tectonics" >plate tectonics</a>. Although sunken continents do exist – like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia(continent)" title="Zealandia (continent)" >Zealandia</a> in the Pacific as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritia(microcontinent)" title="Mauritia (microcontinent)" >Mauritia</a><sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_2-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria(continent)#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-2" >[2]</a></sup> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Plateau" title="Kerguelen Plateau" >Kerguelen Plateau</a> in the Indian Ocean – there is no known geological formation under the Indian or Pacific Oceans that corresponds to the hypothetical Lemuria.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_(continent)#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup>
Though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult" title="Occult" >occult</a>, as well as some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language" title="Tamil language" >Tamil</a> writers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India" >India</a>. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent" title="Continent" >continent</a> existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, often<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cataclysmic" class="extiw" title="wikt:cataclysmic" >cataclysmic</a>, change, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_shift" title="Pole shift" class="mw-redirect" >pole shift</a>.</p>
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