EARTH’S major landmasses could merge together to form a new “supercontinent” 200million years from now.
According to research, the giant landmass would form in the Pacific Ocean and comprise Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.
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Scientists at Curtin University in Australia predicted the future movements of Earth’s continents using a supercomputer.
It calculated that the world’s next supercontinent, Amasia, will form when the Pacific Ocean closes in 200 to 300million years’ time.
According to the model, America will gradually collide with east Asia while Antarctica crunches into South America.
It would make it possible to hike from France to Australia or South Africa to Argentina without getting your feet wet.
The idea of a “supercontinent” – huge landmasses made up of the present continents – is still relatively new to science.
Until 30 years ago, we knew of only one: Pangaea, which existed between 200 and 300 million years ago.
However, as geological research has progressed, scientists have come to realise that supercontinents have formed and split multiple times.
At least two more – Gondwana, and Laurasia – existed before Pangaea, and experts think more will assemble in future.
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Earth’s continents move a few centimetres per year over molten rock called the mantle, making an eventual coming together inevitable.
“Over the past two billion years, Earth’s continents have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle,” study lead author Dr Chuan Huang said.
“This means that the current continents are due to come together again in a couple of hundred of million years’ time.”
The research team plugged geological data into the supercomputer to simulate 300 million years of tectonic plate movement
It calculated that the Pacific Ocean will close, as opposed to the Atlantic and Indian oceans – a theory favoured by some scientists.
“We showed that in less than 300 million years’ time it is likely to be the Pacific Ocean that will close, allowing for the formation of Amasia, debunking some previous scientific theories,” Huang said.
“Australia is expected to play a role in this important Earth event, first colliding with Asia and then connecting America and Asia once the Pacific closes.”
Study co-author Zheng-Xiang Li said the planet’s ecosystems will be unrecognisable different by the time Amasia has formed.
The massive supercontinent would likely feature a superhot and arid interior.
“Currently, Earth consists of seven continents with widely different ecosystems and human cultures, so it would be fascinating to think what the world might look like in 200 to 300 million years’ time,” said Li.
The research was published in the journal National Science Review.
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