A new supercontinent will appear on Earth: when and how it could happen

In about 200 million years, a new supercontinent will be formed on Earth that will unite the seven continents that now exist. As a result, the Arctic Ocean is likely to disappear completely.

This was written in his book by Ross Mitchell, a geophysicist and professor at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. He also explained what will result in such a convergence of distant continents and what will wait for the Earth further.

Supercontinents had previously existed on Earth: notably, there was the dinosaur-inhabited Pangea, centered in present-day Africa; the barren Rodinia, centered in much of present-day North America and Greenland; and even before that, Columbia or Nuna, a supercontinent centered in Siberia.

How supercontinents form

As Mitchell explains, the reason continents form is the movement of the rigid but malleable mantle, which transfers heat from the core to the Earth's crust.

Scientists hypothesize that as temperatures rise, continents drift into regions where the mantle is colder.

Such places are where oceanic plates sink into the mantle beneath more buoyant tectonic plates (such a process is called subduction). As a result, the ocean gradually disappears, bringing the continents closer together. Eventually, this leads to a collision and the emergence of a new supercontinent.

Modeling of the mantle suggests that once a super large landmass is formed, the continuous inward gravity will cease as new subduction zones will emerge on the coasts of the supercontinent.

Subsequently, the hot mantle will cause the supercontinent to finally rupture and new oceans to form. This will be the beginning of a new continental cycle that will end with the emergence of a new supercontinent.

Supercontinent Amazia

It is generally accepted that the new supercontinent will be called Amazii or Pangaea Ultima. But the process of its formation is controversial among scientists.

In particular, some researchers believe that in 50 million years, the first connections of existing continents will begin, which will lead to the emergence of a supercontinent. As a result, Africa will join Europe, and Australia will merge with Asia. As a consequence of this movement, the Atlantic Ocean will completely disappear. There is another version, which suggests that the Pacific Ocean will disappear.

Mitchell, on the other hand, believes that Amazia will form in the North of our planet. In his opinion, the Arctic Ocean will disappear when America and Eurasia meet at the North Pole, dragging the other continents with them.

Earlier OBOZREVATEL also published a video on which scientists showed how the evolution of the Earth for 100 million years.

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