A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com – Amasia (also named Pangea Proxima), is a possible Pangaea-like supercontinent that will form in the future, more exactly in 200-250 million years.
However, we are already halfway in the long process of Amasia’s formation. The peripheries of Australia have slowly begun to collide with Asia, while the African continent is moving towards Europe.
Scientists predict that the Arctic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea will disappear, and Asia will crash into the Americas forming a supercontinent that will stretch across much of the Northern Hemisphere.
A little different scenario proposes Christopher R. Scotese, a geologist and paleogeographer (now retired from teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington). He predicts that the Atlantic, not the Pacific, will close, reconnecting the east coast of North America to Africa to form “Pangea Proxima” (Amasia).
He believes that it is quite likely that Australia will collide with Asia in 50 million years, and that Africa will gradually move towards Europe, making the Atlantic Ocean much larger than it is today.
So, it means that all continents will be connected.
In the records of our planet, there have been three supercontinents in the past 2 billion years. The oldest of them was supercontinent, Nuna (approximately 1.8 billion years ago). Rodinia was the next one and it existed about 1 billion years ago. Perhaps the best known is the most recent, Pangaea, that existed about 300 million years ago and began to break about 180 million years ago.
Supercontinents form and exist more or less 100 million years and break apart. Then they form again setting the pieces adrift to start another cycle.
Scientific Attempts To Focus On Constant Movement Of Continents
There have long been scientific speculations regarding the constant movement of continents.
A century ago, Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), a German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist, was the first to try to prove these movements, scientifically.
Wegener studied important similarities between the petrified remains of animals and plants found on the continents, which were separated by oceans. He believed that this may be evidence that these species existed on these continents, which were previously connected to each other.
See also:
Stunning View Of What Supercontinent Pangea Looks Like Mapped With Modern Borders
Amasia – New Future Supercontinent
Piece Of A Long-Lost Continent Discovered Under Mauritius
According to Wegener, it is no accident that Africa and South America look like two gigantic pieces of a puzzle.
At the time, no one was particularly interested to start research focusing on continental movements of our planet.
20 years later, Marie Tharp (1920–2006), an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who, in partnership with Bruce Heezen, created the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, in 1950. Tharp’s work revealed the detailed topography and multi-dimensional geographical landscape of the ocean bottom. Her work also revealed the presence of a continuous rift valley along the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, causing a paradigm shift in earth science that led to the acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.
Simply saying, Tharp made it clear that large mountain chains were found not only on land but also underwater. Similar mountains also lay in the depths of other oceans and helped to realize how the surface of the Earth is shaped.
Now we know that that continents move continuously and nothing suggests that this process will stop.
If Scotese’s theory is correct, it is probable that one huge continent on our planet is on the way.
It is worth noting that Scotese’s name for Amasia is ‘Pangea Ultima’ and this name seems to be wrong. The name could imply that it would be the last supercontinent in the long history of the continent formation on Earth. The process of the continent movements has continued for a very long and nothing indicates it stops when Amasia is finally formed.
“… in reality the next supercontinent will break up in turn and many other supercontinents will form again before the Earth is destroyed…” writes Ted Nield in his book ‘Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet’.
Written by – A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com Senior Staff Writer
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