Earth’s next super continent, ‘Amasia’, will likely form when the Pacific Ocean closes in 200 to 300 million years, a Curtin University-led study reveals. Published in National Science Review, the research team used a supercomputer to simulate how a supercontinent forms and found that because the Earth has been cooling for billions of years, the thickness and strength of the plates beneath the Oceans shrink over time, making it harder for the next supercontinent to assemble by closing off “young” oceans like the Atlantic or Indian Oceans.
A cyclical prediction
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 provided insight into what would happen to Earth in the next 200 million years. “Over the past 2 billion years, Earth’s continents have collided to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the super continent cycle. This means that the current continents will come together again in a couple of hundred million years”, said Dr. Huang.
“The resulting new super continent has already been named Amasia because some believe that the Pacific Ocean will close (unlike the Atlantic and Indian Oceans) when the Americas collide with Asia. Australia is also expected to play a role in this major land event, first colliding with Asia and then connecting the Americas 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, allowing Amasia to form, debunking some previous scientific theories”.
There will be less sea and less available water
The Pacific Ocean is what remains of the Panthalassa super ocean that began to form 700 million years ago when the previous super continent 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 size of about 10,000 kilometers is expected to take 200 to 300 million years to close.
Co-author John Curtin and Distinguished Professor Zheng-Xiang Li, 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 super continent will be very arid with high daily temperature ranges”, Professor Li said. “Currently, the Earth is made up of 7 continents with very different ecosystems and human cultures, so it would be fascinating to think what the world will look like in 200 to 300 million years”, he concluded.
