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How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

2022-04-24 16:53:19Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

Nearly 500 years ago, Flemish cartographer Geradus Mercator created one of the most important maps in the world. Of course, it was not the first attempt at a world atlas, nor was it that accurate. Australia was absent there, and the two Americas were presented approx.

Since then, cartographers have produced increasingly accurate versions, correcting Mercator errors. But the latter map, along with others produced by his 16th-century contemporaries, revealed a truly global picture of Earth's terrestrial masses.

How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

But what Mercator did not know, is that continents have not always been located this way. He lived about 400 years before the Tile Tectonics Theory was confirmed. When looking at the positions of 7 continents on a map, it is easy to assume that they are fixed.

For centuries, human beings have fought and made peace over their share of these territories, assuming that their land, but also that of their neighbors, has always been, and always will be, there. Yet from the point of view of the Earth, continents are like leaves moving through a pond.

And all human worries, are like a raindrop on the surface of the leaf. The seven continents were once grouped together in a single mass, a supercontinent called Pangaea. And before that, there is evidence for others that span a period of over 3 billion years: Panotia, Rodinia, Colombia / Nuna, Kenorland and Ur.

Geologists know that supercontinents are distributed and reassembled in several cycles. We are currently halfway there.

So how could the supercontinent be in the future? There are at least 4 different scenarios, which show that one day the living beings of the Earth, will inhabit a very different planet, which will look more like an alien world.

Geologist Joao Duarte of the University of Lisbon in Portugal says the journey to explore Earth's future supercontinents began with an unusual event in the past. An earthquake struck Portugal on a Saturday morning in November 1755.

It was one of the most powerful earthquakes of the last 250 years, killing over 60,000 people and causing a tsunami that struck as far as the Atlantic Ocean. What made that earthquake particularly strange was its location. "There should be no major earthquakes in the Atlantic," he said. "That earthquake was really weird," Duarte said.

Earthquakes of this magnitude usually occur in major diving areas, where oceanic plates sink beneath the continents, melt and consume in the hot mantle. This process causes strong oscillations and large destructions.

But the earthquake of 1755 occurred along a "passive" border, where the oceanic plate that lies at the base of the Atlantic, passes smoothly to the continents of Europe and Africa. In 2016, Duarte and his colleagues proposed a theory of what might happen.

The "seams" between these plates can be disassembled, and a large rupture may be imminent. If it really happens, then a rift could form from the Mediterranean across West Africa and possibly as far as Ireland and the UK, causing volcanoes, mountain build-ups and strong earthquakes in these regions.

Duarte says this could lead to the closure of the Atlantic. And if the Pacific continued to close - which is already happening along the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds it, a new supercontinent would form. He called it Aurika, because at its center would be the former land masses of Australia and America.

Duarte later hypothesized other future scenarios. Together with oceanographer Matthias Green at Bangor University in Wales, they realized they needed someone to create some digital models. And that was his colleague, Hannah Davies, another geologist at the University of Lisbon.

How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

Puna e tyre çoi në 4 skenarë. Përveç modelimit të një tabloje më të detajuar të Aurika-s, ata eksploruan edhe 3 skenarë të tjerë, secila i projektuar të ndodhë afro 200-250 milionë vjet nga tani. Skenari i parë ka të bëjë me atë që mund të ndodhë nëse vazhdon statuskuoja: Atlantiku qëndron i hapur dhe Paqësori mbyllet.

Në këtë skenar, superkontinenti që formohet do të quhet Novopangaea. Por mund të ketë edhe ngjarje gjeologjike në të ardhmen që të çojnë në rregullime të ndryshme. Një shembull është një proces i quajtur “ortoversion”, ku Oqeani Arktik mbyllet dhe Atlantiku dhe Paqësori mbeten të hapura.

Në mesin e oqeanit Atlantik, ka një kreshtë gjigante që përgjysmon dy pllakat kontinentale. Ajo kalon nga Islanda deri në jug të Atlantikut. Këtu po formohet litosfera e re, cila në fund mund të formojë një superkontinent të quajtur Pangea Ultima.

Modelet e superkontinenteve të ardhshme të Tokës, mund të shërbejnë edhe si një tregues për të kuptuar klimën e ekzoplaneteve. Për këtë të fundit 3 ekspertët bashkëpunuan me Majkëll Uej, fizikant në Institutin Godard të NASA-s për Studimet Hapësinore.

How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

Modelimi i klimës së superkontinentit të ardhshëm nga Uej – që zgjati për disa muaj duke përdorur një superkompjuter – zbuloi disa ndryshime të habitshme midis 4 skenarëve. Për shembull Amasia, do të çonte në një planet shumë më të ftohtë sesa në skenarët e tjerë.

With the earth mass concentrated around the North Pole and the oceans, which are less likely to carry warm currents to colder latitudes, ice sheets would form. Meanwhile , Aurica would have a milder and drier climate, with coasts similar to those of present-day Brazil.

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