A new supercontinent is about to form on Earth – teach me about science

Earth is a planet that never stops evolving or changing. It is a living planet that has not stopped changing since its formation. Soon, a new supercontinent will form on Earth.

The continents, as we well know, were formed as a result of the movements of the earth’s crust, which, with their modifications, led to the emergence of those enormous expanses of land that now include a large number of countries and peoples. The Earth is made up of several layers, each with a different composition.

For example, the layers deep inside the Earth are in a liquid state, because the temperatures at those depths of the planet are very high, compared to those at the surface. The surface layers of the Earth are solid and have a much lower temperature, like the lithosphere.

Continents are located in the lithosphere, and it is no coincidence that the lithosphere is also known as the “mainland.” It extends from the surface of the Earth to between 50 and 280 kilometers below it. Although the lithosphere may be thought to be very thick, this layer of Earth “floats” on the inner layers, causing the continents to not stay in the same place and eventually move.

The evidence for this is that in the past there were supercontinents on Earth due to the movements of the layers of our planet, such as Pangea, Laurasia, Euramerica, and Gondwana. They are created due to the movements of tectonic plates.

Because of these past events, it is very likely that a supercontinent will form again within a certain period of time, so scientists from Curtin and Peking Universities fed the data into a high-tech simulator, which revealed the point at which the Earth would undergo a change of this magnitude and once again we have One of these giant continents.

According to the data provided by this technology, this potential event will occur approximately 200 million years from now, and will be formed when the two currently existing continents (America and Asia) merge and form a new giant continent called “Amasia.”

One of the results of this event is the closure of the Pacific Ocean, meaning that it will no longer exist. Although it is not noticeable, this fact was actually expected, because the Pacific Ocean decreases in size every year.

According to the study published in the magazine National Science ReviewThe Earth will undergo a radical change when this supercontinent forms, as sea levels are expected to be much lower and the interior of Amasia will be completely barren, with high daily temperature fluctuations, a report says. launch Zhengxiang Li, co-author of the study and a professor in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

“Right now, the Earth is made up of seven continents with very different ecosystems and human cultures, so it would be fascinating to think about what the world could be like in 200 or 300 million years.” I finish.