What will happen if the continents continue to drift apart?

If history is a guide, the current continents will coalesce once again to form another supercontinent. You can think of continents as giant puzzle pieces shuffling around the Earth. When they drift apart, mighty oceans form. When they come together, oceans disappear.

Will Pangea happen again?

The answer is yes. Pangaea wasn’t the first supercontinent to form during Earth’s 4.5-billion-year geologic history, and it won’t be the last.

Will the continents continue to move?

Today, we know that the continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics. The continents are still moving today. The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) per year.

What is North America drifting away from?

The North American and Eurasian Plates are moving away from each other along the line of the Mid Atlantic Ridge.

Will the continents rejoin sometime in the future?

Just as our continents were once all connected in the supercontinent known as Pangea (which separated roughly 200 million years ago), scientists predict that in approximately 200-250 million years from now, the continents will once again come together.

Can the earth break apart?

The Earth’s crust is broken into plates that are in constant motion over timescales of millions of years. Plates occasionally collide and fuse, or they can break apart to form new ones.

Will this new supercontinent?

Pangaea Proxima (also called Pangaea Ultima, Neopangaea, and Pangaea II) is a possible future supercontinent configuration. Consistent with the supercontinent cycle, Pangaea Proxima could occur within the next 300 million years.

What if a new continent appears?

To avoid existing continents like Europe and Australia being flooded out of existence by displaced water, the new continent would have to create a commensurate drop in the ocean floor. Even so, the resulting tsunamis would kill a substantial portion of humanity, and change life for the survivors as they know it.

Why is the earth not getting bigger?

New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth’s surface. But the Earth isn’t getting any bigger. Deep below the Earth’s surface, subduction causes partial melting of both the ocean crust and mantle as they slide past one another.

What will happen to the Americas in the future?

Scientists remain unsure what will happen to the Americas, leaving two contentious theories for Pangea 2.0: Either the Atlantic will stop growing and one day close again, or the Atlantic will continue to expand. Both create very different futures.

What will happen when the Atlantic ocean collides?

The first two crash sites will take place when Newfoundland collides with Spain, and Brazil bumps into South Africa. Another model, however, suggests the Atlantic will continue to expand, causing the Americas to swing around as the Pacific closes and ultimately crash into Asia, forming a continent called Amasia.

Why are the Americas moving further away from Africa?

Meanwhile, the Americas will be moving further away from Africa and Europe as the Atlantic Ocean steadily 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 interior.

Is the Atlantic Ocean about to stop expanding?

Still, it’s fun to speculate. Collins thinks the Atlantic will soon stop expanding and in accordion-like fashion start closing, its seafloor sucked down below the continents. This will transform the eastern Americas and Western Europe and Africa into worlds struck by earthquakes and eruptions from newly formed volcanoes.