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America and Asia will collide in 50-200 million years time

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C

caramac

Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16934181

America and Eurasia will crash into each other over the north pole in 50-200 million years time, according to scientists at Yale University.

They predict Africa and Australia will join the new "supercontinent" too, which will mark the next coming together of the Earth's land masses.

The continents are last thought to have come together 300 million years ago into a supercontinent called Pangaea.

Details are published in the journal Nature.

The land masses of the Earth are constantly moving as the Earth's as tectonic activity occurs. This generates areas such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where Iceland has formed, and areas such as that off the coast of Japan, where one plate rides over another.

Geologists believe that, over billions of years, these shifting plates have driven the continents together periodically, creating the hypothesised supercontinents of Nuna 1.8 billion years ago, Rodinia a billion years ago, and then Pangaea 300 million years ago.

The next supercontinent has already been given the working title of Amasia, as it is expected to involve the convergence of the Americas and Asia.

What the researchers have set out to do is predict when and where it will form by looking back at where its predecessors emerged.

"We're all pretty familiar with the concept of Pangaea, but there hasn't been much convincing data to suggest how the supercontinents take shape," Ross Mitchell of Yale University told BBC News.

"In our model, we actually have North America and South America joining by closing the Caribbean Sea and the Arctic Sea closing and connecting the Americas and Asia."


The model puts the repositioned Americas within what is known as the Pacific "ring of fire". Europe, part of the Eurasian land mass, Africa and Australia are predicted to join the merging continent, with only Antarctica left out.

The prediction is based on analysis of magnetic data locked into rocks around the world which betray the magnetic orientation of those rocks in past ages.

An animation showing plate motions for the past 500 million years and the rise and fall of the previous supercontinent Pangaea

"Ancient rocks when they form, whether it's lava cooling or sedimentary rock solidifying, will lock in the magnetic orientation," explained Mr Mitchell. "But while this indicates latitude very accurately, historically we haven't had indicators of longitude.

"We found that after each historical supercontinent had assembled, this whole supercontinent would undergo a series of back-and-forth rotations about a stable axis on the equator."

This led them to the view that that each successive supercontinent forms 90 degrees away from its predecessor. Previous studies have suggested supercontinents would form either in the same part of the globe or on alternating sides of the globe.

Commenting on the paper, Dr David Rothery, a geologist with the Open University, said the new research offered us a better insight into the history of our planet.

"We can understand past environments better if we know exactly where they were," he told BBC News. "I don't think as a European I care whether continents are going to converge over the North Pole or whether Britain crashes into America in the far future. Predicting into the future is of far less concern than what happened in the past."
Click to expand...
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
The future will be beholden to a new generation of Amerasians, and we must protect this planet now for such an era to come. TO THE MOON COLONY!

Santaville would be an impractical place to live, on second thought.
 
M

MasterShotgun

brazen editing lynx
The model puts the repositioned Americas within what is known as the Pacific "ring of fire". Europe, part of the Eurasian land mass, Africa and Australia are predicted to join the merging continent, with only Antarctica left out.
Click to expand...

9CIzN.jpg
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
I'm sure we all know about the inner workings of tectonics, but less so how things would end up in the far future of human history on Earth. And we don't need to worry about Antarctica.
 
C

ChiTownBuffalo

Either I made up lies about the Boston Bomber or I fell for someone else's crap. Either way, I have absolutely no credibility and you should never pay any attention to anything I say, no matter what the context. Perm me if I claim to be an insider
I'll pick up a non-ASian girl this weekend and get started on that colliding this weekend.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
D

DemiMatt

Member
why cant any of the cool stuff happen while we're alive? If I'm to die I would like it to happen 2012 style or something cataclysmic
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Why is this even an article? Shouldn't this be obvious to anyone who has a basic understanding of planet geology and plate tectonics?
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
There's only so much we could do here on Earth before we'd have to move elsewhere to survive anyhow. Gradual planetary degradation would be an issue to contend with over a large time span, and staying on one planet all the time isn't very practical when we could get ripped to shreds by methane clouds, big asteroids, gamma rays, etc.
 
M

Messypandas

Member
Question semi-related. I remcall hearing that the moon is slowly moving away from earth and we may lose it from orbit. If this happens, what will happen to earth?
 
B

Bay Maximus

Banned
ZZMitch said:
Even if humans were a peaceful species the chance of us being around in 50 million years is pretty slim.
Click to expand...

Truth, but I think we'll get the job done well before any external forces knock us out of commission. Over/Under 2250AD for the end of humanity.
 
L

Like the hat?

Banned
It always boggles my mind thinking about that far in the future. even if we don't kill each other off, humans as we know them will not even exist anymore.
 
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