Next Supercontinent Will Amaze You

cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com...

Fifty million to 200 million years from now, geologists expect Earth's continents to smash together into one big supercontinent, just as they've done repeatedly in our planet's distant past — and a new computer model suggests that the Arctic Ocean and Caribbean Sea will go by the wayside.

Can't wait for this.

Say bye-bye to the Arctic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

In the past, scientists have assumed that either the Atlantic Ocean will close up, reversing the trend that broke apart the last supercontinent ... or that the current spreading zone in the Atlantic will push the continents 180 degrees around the world to close up the Pacific instead.

Honestly.....I'm not very amazed. This is only one of several different models trying to predict what will happen with the continents in the future, this one using magnetics of ancient rock and the magnetic poles. While it's a good idea, even those that created the model realize that there are many possibilities and no real way of knowing what will happen in the future.

A more thorough analysis of magnetic rocks could provide more evidence to support the orthoversion model, or knock it down. It might even turn out that continents can follow a variety of models to bunch up into supercontinents. "Even if the model doesn't stand up to the test of time, we'll learn a lot by testing it," Murphy said.

While I applaud the effort, there are way too many unknowns to be able to predict such a thing. I would like to see an animation of this though, just to see how the model worked over time.

reply to post by UFO1414


Wow! 2012 is shaping up to be a big year!

Stop continental drift!

reply to post by UFO1414


where the hell has italy gone ? and spain ?????

reply to post by UFO1414


Looks like some weird animal porno picture.....

Interesting..... Looks like most of the world except Australia may well be getting a lot colder.

I find it interesting they think India will split off again from Eurasia given that it's bunching up so heavily against it at present. Also wtf happened to Antarctica? I was just thinking about dusting my water skis off for a pleasant day out on Lake Vostok...

Originally posted by VeniVidi
reply to post by UFO1414

 

Looks like some weird animal porno picture.....

Dude... you are so right.