Prediction about Earth's 250 million year
The Earth was a different place 250 million years ago. But if current continents will stay alike on 250 million years later (may be impossible!!),the Earth's map will be like this picture mentioned above.
Our planet is now obviously becoming smaller due to the advent of superlative & rapid modern technology such as Internet.However,astonishingly in the far upcoming days,it wouldn't be technology but the Earth itself will draw it's continents so closer that distance will not be an issue for us. Then a single supercontinent will form which will bring all countries together.
Believe it or not our continents are always moving , they will retain the same criteria till the Sun evaporates the Earth in a period of five billion years time. The cycle of supercontinent will resume alternatively 250 million years time,the continents will interlinked each other to form a new supercontinent in every 250 million years.
Picture shows - Africa is going to crash into Europe as Australia moves north to unite with Asia.Meanwhile the Atlantic Ocean will probably expanded for a short time before it changes course and later defunct. Also the Americas will be shifting further away from Africa and Europe as the Atlantic Ocean firmly grows.The Atlantic sea floor is split from north to south by an underwater mountain ridge where new rock material flows up from Earth's inside portion. The two halves of the sea floor slowly spread apart as the ridge is filled with the new component,causing the Atlantic to widen.
Designer of Pangaea Ultima -
The future world or Pangaea Ultima was designed by a geologist of the Texas University-Dr. Christopher Robert Scotese for his project known as Paleomap Project. His project reveals the ambulatory state of the continents as a result of plate tectonics which was occurred 1 billion years ago & it also explains about the future state of the Earth - 250 million years ahead.
Differentiation in Earth’s
Geology -
 |
| 50 million years from now |
If we consider present day plate movements, the Atlantic will expand,Africa will merge with Europe closing the Mediterranean,Australia will join with South East Asia to form Pangaea Proxima, California will slip with the coast to Alaska. Try to see the mark sign that shows position of California.(right corner of the picture)
 |
| Our planet - 150 million years from now. |
According to the picture - After 150 million years later, the Atlantic Ocean may begin to approach since new subduction zones alongside the eastern shores of North & South America start to gallop the ocean floor the present divides North America from Africa.
A map of the world as it might appear 250 million years from now.Notice the clumping of most of the world's landmass into single super-continent,-"Pangaea Ultima",with an inland sea - all that's left of the one mighty Atlantic Ocean.
Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the land pieces of Earth were connected with each other to form a single supercontinent called Pangaea. The surface level of the earth is slowly fragmented into large parts that are slowly transpositioning - a gradual process called "plate tectonics".
There are so many pathways in which various plates can move,and it's only a matter of time before the continents shattered together to form a mammoth super-continent. Right now,we are probably a little past halfway through the current supercontinent cycle,with the last super-continent Pangaea shaped about 300 million years ago and the next supercontinent due in roughly 250 million years.
It's obviously surprising,however,completely true that Earth's continents are constantly changing,moving and rearranging themselves over millions of years - affecting Earth's climate and biology.Every few hundred million years,the continents combine to create giant,world-spanning supercontinents.
VARIATIONS --
According to the scientists, there were a series of super-continents -
1. Vaalbara (3.6-2.8 billion years ago)
2. Ur (3 billion years ago)
3. Kenorland (2.7 - 2.1 billion years ago)
4. Columbia (1.8- 1.5 billion years ago),
5. Rodinia (1.25 billion to 750 billion years ago) and
6. Pannotia ( 600 million years ago)
Let's back where it all started --
Vaalbara -
There's proof in ancient plates known as cratons which believed to be formed about 3.5 billion years ago.These cratons are giant rock pieces those gradually came & joined each other to create surfaces.
Among those cratons,two were oldest as 3.5 billion years ago,said to form the little continent called Vaalbara but it was a supercontinent for its single existence on the planet.It's utterly true, continents that those were same as half part of today's Australia couldn't be considered as supercontinents;however,we have to consider the reality- that time these were the sole existence of landmasses on Earth as our planet was completely in a state of the ocean. The cratons also were not formed at once but in a gradual process.
The craton of Vaalbara is now found in Africa's southern part and also in Australia.
Ur -
Formed 3 billion years ago & was consisted of few islands and also said to be the longest-lived landmass our Earth was ever seen; however,it still have fuzzy explanations . At present time, we could find the parts of Ur in India,Madagascar & Australia.
Kenorland -
Not too much gigantic in size but slightly bigger than its prior landmasses Kenorland was formed around 2.7 billion years ago.It's said Kenorland broke up to create a mammoth spear like structure with rainfall causing declining of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. As a consequence the first snowball earth was created and the whole planet spent another million of years at beneath the bitter temperatures. It's not an atypical feature which many supercontinents over the years possesses in turn causes immense environmental alterations.
The Kenorland alike land texture found in US,Canada,Greenland,the Scandinavian countries,western aspect of Australia & southern Africa.
Columbia -
After completed three phases finally our Earth witnessed its first ever full feature supercontinent known as Columbia formed about 1.8 billion years ago. It had an area of 50 million square kilometers.
From this continent, we get a much well composed structure in comparison with the previous vague structures.
Rodinia -
The next and one of the most important continent was Rodinia formed almost a billion years ago. Although experts were not sure about its geographical features but it was massive and started to disintegrate around 550 million years ago.
This disintegration was one of the most crucial occurrences in Earth's geographical history.
Unlike Kenorland, the cluster form of Rodinia also created a frost Earth, but not entirely.The disruption of Earth created new oceans and resulted rising of sea beds. For this reason the sea became superficial & lost its depth resulting sea creatures as well plants to migrate to land.
The hiatus of Rodinia generated huge volcanic eruptions which in turn caused rich nutrients to move from underneath of the Earth into the sea. This fact helped the creatures by making their life much easier for survival due to the presence of nutrients.So possibly in absence of Rodinia & plate tectonics,none would be here today.
Pannotia
It's not sure but according to the experts.there might be another supercontinent which was formed between Rodinia & Pangaea known as Pannotia. The matters related to Pannotias formation was coincidental and didn't last long,departed in just 60 million years later & proceeded to form Pangaea,our Earth's last supercontinent till today.
According
to the specialists, another two imaginary supercontinents have been
proposed
namely
- AMASIA & NOVOPANGAEA.
It's
tough to foresee what will happen and how will the tectonic plates
move??
However, according
to the scientists,the Amasia will consist of Atlantic Ocean which will
resume its expansion,enforcing North America & South America to
combine into Eastern Asia,also include Australia with them.
 |
| Amasia - Picture depicts the positioning of the continents in 100 billion years |
In case of Novopangaea,the Antarctica swells up to shattered with the rest- jammed between Asia,Australia & South America - also typical fact is that both of these continents will consist of South America & North America joined with Eastern Asia & Australia.
 |
| Novopangaea |
Only difference - in Amasia,Antarctica will remain the same where it is now but in Novopangaea it will change its direction as mention above.
Obviously we will not stay in the time discussed above, but these theories are not single-eyed discussion. A lot of debates and experiments were discussed,then these present facts are discovered. There's no denial of the fact that the continents were separated from each other twice to form demolishing reactions which as a consequences create the Snow-status Earth.The continuous cycle of crashing of the continents & inter-joining again resulted the planet to be chill & torrid status which in turn causing a prolonged perplex reaction.Sooth to say , the history of supercontinents is nevertheless unfinished and not simply because we don't where it's directed. A lot of unsolved puzzles still hovering around us.
