Supercontinents, where are we going next?

With all this talk about the magnetic poles moving, it is easy to speculate about what the earth is doing. Magnetic shifts have occurred before. They are usually gradual, over time, giving nature a chance to get used to the changes. It would be interesting to speculate about the earth getting ready for another supercontinent. The continents are moving only a few centimeters a year so it will take time, but this has happened before. Whether it is caused by the magnetic poles moving is still up for debate, but this does give us a reason to look into the past and see where we have been.

There has been a cycle of supercontinents since the planet was formed over 4 billion years ago. Our focus will be on the supercontinents of the past, present, and future figuratively speaking. Before Pangea, there was a supercontinent of Rodinia which was closer to the Antarctic region about a billion years ago. Some of our continents from today were a part of it, but we lost a continent in the breakup. The newly discovered Zealandia was once a part of the Rodinia Supercontient. By measuring samples from the continent under the water, they were able to compare samples with rock from the same time period. While there are other portions of this continent that date to a time period after Pangea, the oldest samples point to it being one of the continents from Rodinia. The continents drifted towards the south pole and then moved away from it. This might have caused the breakup.

The continents drifted apart around 750 million years ago and came together again into Pangea. This is the supercontinent that everyone knows about. It was also the birthplace of our dinosaur age. The earliest pre-ancestors of the dinosaurs ranged all over this continent. It was also composed of most of our known continents today with North America, Africa, and Europe smashed together. The Appalachian mountains were a part of this union and formed the central mountain range of Pangea. They were all groups around the Tethys sea but we lost another continent in this breakup. Mauritia or Lemuria was lost as these continents drifted apart according to findings on CNN.

We drifted into the continents that we know of today-North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Here we are moving around again a few centimeters a year but where are we moving to? What if we drift into a new super continent and what would it look like? There have been about four theories over the last thirty years as to where we are going.

Pangea Proxima follows the formation of past supercontinents which have formed a ring. Amasia was created from the models of the Atlantic Ocean spreading apart and the Pacific ocean closing, but that would take several million years. NovaPangea has an interesting foundation from the rift in East Africa which is active and moving as we speak. The Aurica model suggests that both oceans will close and a new ocean will form. This is based on the fact that it has happened in the past. We have had a new ocean formation with every change to a supercontinent, but would we lose this time?

One thing is for sure-the land is moving. Where and when is still up for debate. It is interesting to see the background for these supercontinents forming. There is no reason for concern, it won’t happen in our lifetime. We see evidence of each one of these hypotheses knowing the history of Pangea, the Atlantic spreading apart, the Pacific Ocean closing, and we already know that East Africa is moving. Europe was once a group of islands, and Saudi Arabia is moving to become an island. India is always moving, but they are moving further north as is the continent of Africa. Who’s to say what will happen with the Pacific ring of fire, but the chances of a new Zealandia forming could spur the closing of the Pacific as well! We will just have to wait and see what forms in our lifetime.