The Pacific Ocean will give way to the supercontinent Amasia

Sep. 30 () –

Earth’s next supercontinent, Amasia, will likely form when the Pacific Ocean closes in 200 to 300 million yearsreveals a study led by Curtin University.

Published in National Science Reviewthe research team used a supercomputer to simulate how a supercontinent forms and found that because the Earth has been cooling for billions of yearsthe thickness and strength of the plates under the oceans reduce over time, making it more difficult for the next supercontinent to assemble by closing off “young” oceans, such as the Atlantic or Indian Oceans.

Lead author Dr Chuan Huang, from Curtin’s Earth Dynamics Research Group and School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement that the new findings were significant and They provided information about what would happen to the Earth in the next 200 million years..

“For the past two billion years, Earth’s continents have collided to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle. This means that the current continents will come together again in a couple of hundred million years.” years,” said Dr. Huang it’s a statement.

“The resulting new supercontinent has already been named Amasia because some believe the Pacific Ocean will close (as opposed to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans) when the Americas collide with Asia. Australia is also expected to play a role in this major terrestrial event, first colliding with Asia and then connecting America and Asia once the Pacific Ocean closes.

“By simulating how Earth’s tectonic plates are expected to evolve using a supercomputer, we were able to show that in less than 300 million years the Pacific Ocean is likely to close, which will allow the formation of Amasia, discrediting some previous scientific theories.”

The Pacific Ocean is what remains of the Panthalassa super ocean that began to form 700 million years ago when the previous supercontinent began to break up. It is the oldest ocean we have on Earth and it started shrinking from its maximum size since the time of the dinosaurs. It is currently shrinking in size by a few centimeters per year and its current dimension of about 10,000 kilometers is expected to take between two and three hundred million years to close.

Co-author John Curtin, the Zheng-Xiang Li Distinguished Professor, also of the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said having the entire world dominated by a single landmass would drastically alter the Earth’s ecosystem and environment. .

“Earth as we know it will be drastically different when Amasia forms. Sea levels are expected to be lower, and the vast interior of the supercontinent will be very arid with high daily temperature ranges,” Professor Li said.

“Currently, 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 will look like in 200 to 300 million years.”