Future of the Countinents

[Anonymous No.9306654]

What is /sci/ opinion on the future of the conintents. Personally, I think a lot of these future models are inaccurate with Novopangaea coming closest to what I think will happen with these exceptions:

>Antartica will most likely collide with the Atlantic side of Patagonia in 20 myfn or so given current trends
>East Africa will separate in the North mostly from the mainland and collide with Southern Pakistan as Arabia drives between them like a wedge.
>The Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans will merge as North America and Eurasioafrica close the Arctic ocean near modern Alaska/Northern Pacific while South America closes the South Pacific, wrapping around southern Australia which will have already collided with South China.

Any thoughts/critiques? This is based off the current movement of the contintents. I haven't seen much discussion about it in the geological community in the last 10 years or so, and given new findings this model seems to make the most sense. I call it BeringoArtica because of the fusing of the Eurasian and North American Cratons in the afeormentioned region of the Bering Strait and the nearby Arctic Ocean.

[Anonymous No.9306664]

>>9306654
Geologist have stated that predicting continent movements past 100myfn is difficult as movements can change in time-spans longer than this, but it seems that given the relative closeness of the two massive Cratons on North America and Eurasia to one another and the general direction they are headed in (North) this seems plausible. Basically the continents seem to be moving North (only about 30% of modern landmass is in the Southern hemisphere as is). The collection of all the earths landmasses in the northern hemisphere and the closing of the pacific seems to be the biggest trends I can easily make out.

[Anonymous No.9306667]

>>9306654
I also wonder if the collection of a plurality of the earths landmass in the Northern Hemisphere might induce a new Snowball Earth due to the breaking of heat distributing currents like that which happend with Rodinia 700mya.

[Anonymous No.9306678]

>>9306667
I wonder what the climate would be like on said continent. I read that the UK will be closer to the North Pole and Siberia more temperate. Also what latitude would it be at?

[Anonymous No.9306688]

>>9306678
I'm guessing the overall latitude would be just north of temperate (say 65-70 degrees North). Also it probably wouldn't Snowball Earth given that the southern portions of continent would be near equator, while Northern most would be on the North Pole. This means that currents which would inevitably circle the continent would go through warm and cool latitudes like the gulf stream. Though the Southern Hemisphere would be virtually entirely ocean...

[Anonymous No.9306696]

>>9306664
Why do people say that once the Atlantic gets too wide it'll go from a mid ocean ridge to start sub-ducting again? Is there such thing as a geological phenomenon of Ridges being so far from landmasses that they can no longer sustain themselves and just switch? Would it be a slow transition or a quick and violent process? I wonder if there are any past examples of this..

[Anonymous No.9306700]

>>9306678
If Future is Wild has taught me anything, Squids will rule the world by then.

[Anonymous No.9306712]

>>9306696
That's why I am saying it might Snowball.. The Southern Hemisphere's Global current would slowly create a massive floating ice sheet around the South Pole that would grow and grow in size until it cooled the entire worlds sees enough that the whole world snowballed. Plus Super-continents take a while to break up so it could last for 100s of millions of years.

[Anonymous No.9306714]

>>9306700
I for one welcome our new Squid overlords. Praise Squido!

[Anonymous No.9306717]

>>9306654
Bump. Finally a original thread here.

[Anonymous No.9306723]

>>9306700
>Future is Wild

Aw the old days when the Documentary Networks actually made original and fascinating programs. Not like the reality TV garbage today.

[Anonymous No.9306726]

>>9306696
This is whats happening to the pacific right now you fucking brainlet. The farallon plate is completely subducted under north america and it was the other half of the spreading center in the pacific. The spreading centers dont just fizzle out, they are eventually subducted. Just look at fucking google earth and notice where the pacific spreading center goes into the north american plate and is gone. Literally anyone can figure this out on their own

[Anonymous No.9306729]

>>9306696
I just can't wait for the Mediterranean to become a giant mountain to prevent the niggers from coming to Europe. But alas, Eurabia will have been established long before that can happen...

[Anonymous No.9306734]

>>9306717
>>9306723
This is becoming a nostalgia thread lol
>>9306729
>back to >>/pol/

[Anonymous No.9306746]

Fascinating how even the Nature of the continents tells us we should put our difference aside and unite as one - children of Gaia.

And yet some persist in rejecting the obvious truth.

Generosity and patience have their limits and these people are certainly pushing them.

Should we perhaps start considering other methods in dealing with their unreasonable behavior?

[Anonymous No.9306747]

>>9306726
But the Farollon plate was Oceanic. The North and South American plates are continental.

[Anonymous No.9306749]

>>9306729
This is the level of stupidity that I have come to expect from /sci/ when it comes to anything related to earth science.

[Anonymous No.9306753]

>>9306749
They're on every board now. /Pol/ is a cancer.
>>9306746
True, and honestly I don't think there is anything that can do that at this point

[Anonymous No.9306755]

>>9306747
North american plate extends all the way out to the atlantic spreading center. Same with the south american plate. They have continental and oceanic crust. Again, just fucking google this shit you brainlet. The only plate made entirely out of oceanic crust that isnt the size of the juan de fuca is the pacific

[Anonymous No.9306759]

>>9306726
Honestly when did the Pacific not exist? It was just the Paleo-Tethys before it's name changed. It seems like it is just an ocean that will always exist desu.

[Anonymous No.9306761]

>>9306755
When and how do you think the transition will happen?

[Anonymous No.9306768]

Global warming will vaporize the oceans by then so who cares.

[Anonymous No.9306771]

>>9306726
The Ocean floor looks pretty boring here desu. Also what are those long horizontal lines?

[Anonymous No.9306780]

>>9306768
>Being this retarded

[Anonymous No.9306785]

>>9306771
I think those are Transform faults(May have wrong name). It's cuz the California Plate is sliding North into Alaska (Reason Gulf of Baja + San Andreas Fault exists) alongside the North America Plate.

[Anonymous No.9306790]

>>9306755
Why is the mid Atlantic ridge so long? It fuck with my head desu. It's like the whole world is splitting apart there right down the middle.

[Anonymous No.9306795]

>>9306714
>You couldn't have prevented this.

[Anonymous No.9306796]

>>9306759
We judge the age of oceans by the age of their oldest crust, which for the pacific is around 150 mya. Was there an ocean there in the same geospatial location prior to that? Maybe, but at that point you could only try know that through plate reconstructions, even then it is really just speculation. Do not take every plate reconstruction map as absolute fact. Large liberties are taken because there are so many assumptions made about paleo environments and exact plate boundaries. Was there a pangea? Definately. Do we know what it looked like and can we make a map of it? Depending on who you ask, yes no and kind of.
There are many different plate reconstructions out there of the same paleocontinents.

[Anonymous No.9306805]

>>9306780
Increased temperature due to greenhouse gasses results in increased water vapor in the atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas which results in increased temperature... and so on. I know you voted for Trump and asking you to grasp such complicated sequence of events is pushing your intellect to its outer limits, but please try. Btw, climate change is not a Chinese conspiracy aimed at taking away your walmart job.

[Anonymous No.9306807]

>>9306771
>>9306785
Those are fracture zones, left behind by transform faults that are characteristic to spreading centers. If you look at the atlantic spreading center, you will see that it zig zags because of these transform faults, but in some places you also get long horizontal lines likes these, which are fracture zones and not actual faults. Its boring there because the spreading center has been subducted, look further south and you will see it come out.

[Anonymous No.9306811]

>>9306796
Don't they have a way of figuring out how ancient landmasses were oriented by measuring the magnetic directions of the rocks or something? I forget what it's called but that's how they discovered the magnetic poles flip every now and again.. Couldn't they use that to more accurately determine it?

[Anonymous No.9306817]

>>9306790
There are lots of answers to that and i do not know exactly which one is right. If i had to guess it would probably be just different rift zones connecting, not necessarily one large rift. Its more like a small dent on the skin of an apple, not really splitting apart just slightly grazed

[Anonymous No.9306820]

>>9306805
CO2 levels were more than twice as high during the Carboniferous and this didn't happen. You would need Venus levels of green house gasses to evaporate the oceans. Go back to Lefty pol.

[Anonymous No.9306821]

>>9306729
Back to your containment board alex jones

[Anonymous No.9306827]

>>9306811
Paleomagnetism is usually used as another way of dating rocks. We use it as one way to date how old the oceanic crust is in different places because during a certain orientation crust will be pointed NS but in a different orientation it will be pointed SN. Just look up paleomagnetism and ocean crust.

[Anonymous No.9306828]

>>9306807
I kinda see it.. Wonder how the Cocos and Caribbean Plate fit into this. They always seemed like some out of place wedge you know?

[Anonymous No.9306838]

>>9306827
Yea that's it. Why don't they just use that to determine the direction?

>EX: all findings show this pointing in "X" direction in "X" region and date to "X"mya.
>Ego: this landmass faced in this direction at this time

No?

[Anonymous No.9306842]

>>9306821
Kill yourself Nigger lover

[Anonymous No.9306850]

>>9306726
If that's what's happening to the Pacific now, And what will happen to the Atlantic... Does that mean the Poo Ocean will rule the world?

[Anonymous No.9306857]

>>9306828
Yes it is not so simple. Thats why geologists study things like this. Look at the falkland islands and you will see a differet kind of interesting plate geometry. You can follow the pacific spreading center to the south west and it becomes more pronounced.

[Anonymous No.9306863]

>>9306654
>>9306807
>>9306828
You bring up an interesting point about Antarctica. No one really talks about it's geology. Wikipedia vaugley indicates OPs point might be true but no mainstream articles mention it. Where is Antarctica going??

[Anonymous No.9306865]

>>9306838
Because structure usually fucks up the exact orientation and its easier just to say if it was normal or reversed. You can use the structure of the rocks to try and determine orientation, but its usually local not over the entire continent. If it were that easy, we would have already done it

[Anonymous No.9306870]

>>9306850
We do not know exactly because we cannot see into the future. An educated guess would say that something similar to what is happening to the pacific will happen to the atlantic. Is that 100% true? Wait 300 million years and find out

[Anonymous No.9306872]

>>9306865
Fascinating.. How do geologists know at all then?

[Anonymous No.9306873]

>>9306863
Thats because there is fucking 2 km of ice on top of the rocks and we dont know what the rocks look like. Look up a geologic map of antarctica. Most of it is bullshit unless it is around the coast

[Anonymous No.9306876]

>>9306857
It's kinda beautiful looking honestly. Reminds me of watching the lava in a lava lamp move around like I used to do when I was a kid.

[Anonymous No.9306879]

>>9306873
I thought satellites could scan through it no? The difference in density between the ice which is frozen water and the rock should be enough to tell the difference with modern techniques.

[Anonymous No.9306885]

>>9306872
We have tons of techniques that tell us very little by themselves. Therefore we combine them to learn alot. For dating we use radio isotopes, thermochronoly, paleomagnetism. For structure and paleoreconstruction there is mapping faults, paleo flows, sedimentary structure, grain provenance. There is no one way to know everything, but lots of ways to know a little bit

[Anonymous No.9306888]

>>9306850
>>9306870
Your both wrong, Southern Ocean master race will rule and Elephant seal and Penguin armies will rule the world.

[Anonymous No.9306889]

>>9306879
They can tell there is a rock, but they cant tell you what kind of rock it is. We know there are rocks down there, just not what kinds of rocks. Also those are like gprs not satellites

[Anonymous No.9306896]

>>9306885
It seems like you are a geologist, what do you think of OPs original post? How accurate is it/ what do you think will happen?

[Anonymous No.9306903]

>>9306873
Not for long desu.

[Anonymous No.9306905]

>>9306889
How come they say there is probably oil under Antarctica?

[Anonymous No.9306910]

>>9306729
>>9306842
>>9306903
I see /Pol/ is slow today

[Anonymous No.9306925]

>>9306726
Is the Farallon Plate what's responsible for Yellowstone? Think about it, all that displaced mantle material could easily account for the upsurge of magma that created that massive chamber under the Park. Could also be why the New Madrid Fault is acting up all a sudden despite being Pre-Cambrian, although Fracking seems more likely.

[Anonymous No.9306928]

>>9306896
This is me >>9306796
Bottom line is we dont know and to some degree any model could be correct. I dont have an opinion really because i care about the past not the future

[Anonymous No.9306931]

>>9306905
Because its a very vague statement that could be true. Theres oil on every continent, its not such a stretch to think there is under antarctica.

[Anonymous No.9306935]

>>9306925
Yellowstone has been doing shit for a long time, bur it could be one of the factors. Some people think its related to the extension we see in the Basin and Range. Yellowstone could just be a hotspot unrelated to the farallon. Fracking does cause earthquakes so its probably effecting the new madrid more than the farallon

[Anonymous No.9306936]

>>9306664
>>9306796
>>9306817
>>9306857
>>9306865
>>9306885
>>9306928
Seems like the more you look at it, the more it becomes impossible to accurately determine the future of the continents at all.. What is for Certain I wonder? I mean it's not like things are gonna be different tommorow regarding the continents and their movements. Like for example, the Strait of Gibraltar is only 9 miles across. Since Africa is moving North I wonder when approximately will the Mediterranean be permanently severed from the Atlantic and dry up?

[Anonymous No.9306939]

>>9306935
I thought the displacement of material deep in the Crust could upset old faults. Like wasn't there a concern during the BP oil spill that so much oil would leak out the empty space would collapse a large portion of the gulf of Mexico into it or was that just a larp. Also what do you mean by extension of the Basin and Range?

[Anonymous No.9306942]

>>9306910
This is probably more accurate..

[Anonymous No.9306945]

>>9306939
Extension as in extensional faulting which is a normal fault. Look up basin and range. Mountain ranges with basins between them in the US. They can affect faults today, its just not certain that that one is doing that. Theres a lot happening underground

[Anonymous No.9306948]

>>9306935
>>9306939
I'm reading up on this and it seems like the New Madrid fault could be a sign that the North American continent could break up in the near future. Any thought?

[Anonymous No.9306959]

>>9306936
Pretty much yea there is no way to know exactly how continents will look in the future with what we know right now, but we can know smaller movements with some degree of certainty. Gibraltar is an example of that, just like how we are pretty sure the san andreas with fuck up parts of california and displace it. And we know that the next hawaiian island is being formed just like how the big island was. Will these always continue to move in ways we can predict, probably not, thats just that nature of things

[Anonymous No.9306964]

>>9306945
>>9306948
The Central US seems to be a rather tumultuous region, particularly out west in geological terms. The Area is primarily folded strata that separates the pacific from the Canadian Shield.

[Anonymous No.9306969]

>>9306948
Its possible. Its more likely that it is a remnant of a past failed rift that occurred in the mid US and resulted in alot of uplift from the ozarks to the driftless zone of wisconsin. If it had to guess, it would be the latter because there is tons of evidence for a failed rift and those make some big honking faults bigger than the new madrid.

[Anonymous No.9306976]

>>9306969
How come the nearby area of the black belt and the Atlantic Plane is so low lying and flat then? Wouldn't the Uplift make the South more elevated and Rocky like the Northeast around New England?

[Anonymous No.9306978]

>>9306964
Midwest US from ohio to south dakota is defined as a craton, literally the opposite of a tumultuous spot. It has had almost no tectonic activity occuring there since the ordovician 480 mya. There are anomalies like the failed rift, but that failed and only caused a bit of uplift. Now out west in the rockies, shit was and is going crazy with tons of shortening the the past, super complex structure and faulting, and now extension and normal faulting. Pretty neat

[Anonymous No.9306985]

>>9306976
No, uplift in the Mid US is a smooth and broad process, and is not pronounced like actual mountains. The rockies and the appalachians were formed from crust colliding and oceanic crust subducting under the continental crust. The collisions creates a buckling effect that can form mountains, but the subduction creates magmatic ponding and localized volcano building. Keep in mind these are very general summaries of extremely complex processes. These are very different processes from uplift like in the mid US, which was probably from a mantle plume and completely removed from tectonic strucute for the most part.

[Anonymous No.9307004]

>>9306696
It's not that the mid Atlantic ridge will become a subduction zone, the ridge will keep spreading for a long while. However the eastern coast of North America will slowly switch from a passive margin (no tectonic activity) to a subduction zone. This is because the Atlantic oceanic crust is denser than the U.S. continental crust, and will eventually become so big that the difference in density will force the ocean crust downward
There's a lot more forces at work but that's the basic gist of what will happen

[Anonymous No.9307007]

>>9306936
>>9306959
Gibraltar strait is 14 km, africa is moving northward about 2 cm per year, will be closed in like 700000 years. Thats pretty soon

[Anonymous No.9307010]

>>9307004
No the north american plate is made up of oceanic and continental crust. It is all moving in a westerly direction. The east coast is not going to be a tectonic zone based on what we see now. You need crust moving toward eachother. Thats why we have the rockies now. The north american plate starts from the mid atlantic and ends at the west coast

[Anonymous No.9307013]

>>9307004
I live on the East Coast lol. I obviously won't be alive when it happens, but I wonder what that will be like. Does that mean a trench will develop close to the shore like with Japan and the Marianas?

[Anonymous No.9307017]

>>9306978
Once a region becomes a Craton is that it? Or is there a way for a Craton to become geologically active again? Because it would seem the best way to depict the movements of the continents is to study how Cratons interact seeing as the interactions that separate them are more temporary.

[Anonymous No.9307019]

>>9307013
No the mariana trench is the boundary between TWO PLATES. There is not boundary between TWO PLATES at the atlantic. If you are wondering how we got the appalachian mountains, it was because there was a boundary between TWO PLATES there millions of years ago. Guess what, that rifted and now we have the mid atlantic spreading center the the east coast is ONE PLATE.

[Anonymous No.9307024]

>>9307017
Cratons can rift. Then you can get a new ocean. Other than that yea, they just stay like that. Oldest rocks in the world are in canada, in a craton.

[Anonymous No.9307029]

>>9307017
And yes studying cratons is a great way of understanding plate movement, people do thay

[Anonymous No.9307032]

>>9307024
>mfw Canada is the oldest place on earth

[Anonymous No.9307052]

Reminder this is what the north american plate is today

[Anonymous No.9307073]

>>9307010
>>9307019
You're right about NA being one plate but in hundreds of millions of years the plate will split in two, and the passive margin will become a subduction zone.
t. geologist studying tectonics

[Anonymous No.9307090]

>>9307052
>>9307073
Where will it split do you think?

[Anonymous No.9307106]

>>9307073
Whats your evidence

[Anonymous No.9307121]

>>9307073
>>9307106
Its it just going to rift? And if so where? Right of the east coast or maybe where that failed rift in the mid US is? Probably neither, because the oceanic part of the north american plate is more likely to subduct under some plate somewhere if we are talking about hundred of millions of years which is basically saying nothing at all because there is little you can do but massively speculate.

[Anonymous No.9307154]

>>9307052
>one de fucka plate
badass.

[Anonymous No.9307180]

>>9307017
East Africa is rifting currently.

[Anonymous No.9307339]

>>9307090
>>9307106
>>9307121
Ultimately it's all conjecture, just like any time we speculate about future plate configurations. Maybe it's too strong of a statement to say that a subduction zone on the east coast WILL happen but it's a possibility.
Here's more on how subduction zones form if anyone's interested: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X04004984