With his new book, Bruce Luyendyk has created a whole new genre — the geothriller.

Mighty Bad Land follows the longtime UC Santa Barbara researcher on his 1989 expedition to Antarctica, a gritty journey that resulted in the near-death of a companion and the discovery of a hidden eighth continent. Luyendyk coined the vast submarine plateau “Zealandia,” which broke away from Antarctica many millennia ago, the tips of its tallest mountains now comprising the country of New Zealand.