Once we take a look at maps of the world, landmasses appear to be effectively distributed. Positive, there may be extra water than landmasses, however they’re all unfold out. Effectively, not likely. When you seize a globe and switch it in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, you’ll be able to angle it in a approach that the one factor you’ll be able to see is water. On the alternative aspect, you’ll be able to see loads of land, in case you give attention to Africa, Europe, and Asia. So the query is, why are all of the continents bunching up?
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We are able to blame all of it on Pangea, and totally on the supercontinent cycle. If we should be nitpickers, the continents are literally nonetheless spreading out. The Atlantic Ocean is getting larger and pushing the Americas away from Europe and Africa. Nonetheless, they haven’t unfold to a extra equal distribution across the globe, and so they may by no means get to that time.
Each 300 to 500 million years, many of the continents find yourself being in a supercontinent, an unlimited area fabricated from a number of tectonic plates above sea degree. It’s worthwhile to have at the very least 75 p.c of all landmasses in your supercontinent for it to qualify. Regardless of Europe, Asia, and Africa being connected to one another, they solely cowl 57 p.c of Earth’s complete space.
Pangea is the final supercontinent to have existed, and it lasted from 336 million years in the past to 175 million years in the past. We’re nonetheless coping with the breakup of Pangea. And most famously, we are able to see how effectively the coasts of South America and Africa match collectively.
Earlier than Pangea, there was Gondwana (not all the time acknowledged as a supercontinent) and plenty of, many extra whose names are usually not fairly as in style with the general public. The ethical is that the forces of continental drift shift the continents throughout the floor of the Earth. Over tons of of tens of millions of years, continents are pulled collectively, forming supercontinents, after which the supercontinent breaks aside simply as simply because it got here collectively.
So over the subsequent a number of tens of tens of millions of years, issues will get much less bunched up, with Eurasia transferring east and the Americas transferring west. Afterwards, issues may get cozy once more, with a future supercontinent starting to kind.
Till then, it’s attainable to see Earth as a giant blue marble, with few landmasses – you simply should be in orbit over the South Pacific, an ocean so huge it has its personal antipodes. There, the pale blue dot is definitely a deep blue sphere.
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