Earth might have a new supercontinent in 300 Mn years, predict researchers

Christened Amasia, the supercontinent might take its shape when the Pacific Ocean closes and an Asia-America collision happens

Planet Earth continues to throw up wonders. Nature’s way of creation and annihilation have been going on for the past millions of years, and it continues to cease. Now, new research has pointed out that in the next 200 to 300-million-year period, the Pacific Ocean will close in give shape to a new continent.

Researchers at the New Curtin University have predicted that a new supercontinent will take its place. Christened Amasia at the moment, the supercontinent was envisioned in a model created by the researchers and published as a paper in the National Science Review.

They put to use a supercomputer to simulate how the supercontinent would take its shape. The New Curtin University researchers found that because the Earth has been cooling for billions of years, the thickness and strength of the plates under the oceans reduce with time.

And so, they said, this would in turn make the assembling of a supercontinent difficult through the closing in of young oceans, such as the Atlantic or Indian oceans.

Supercontinent, a phenomenon that happens every 600 Mn years

It has been reported that the new findings are important, and also they offer various insights into what would happen to Earth in the next 200 million years. Going down history, the researchers believe that over the past 2 billion years, the continents of the Earth have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years. This, they term the supercontinent cycle.

That also means that there is a possibility that the current continents might drift together again in around 200 million years. And, the Amasia supercontinent that will be formed by the closing of the Pacific Ocean after America collides with Asia. Not just that, it is also expected that Australia will also have a significant role to play in this event, as the continent would probably collide with Asia when the Pacific closes.

Researchers show simulation using a supercomputer

The researchers were able to simulate the behaviour of the Earth’s tectonic plates using a supercomputer. The simulation clearly shows that in around 300 million years, the Pacific Ocean might close and thus give shape to Amasia.

Now that gives us much to think about, right? Earthlings that live a 300 years from now would have to stay tuned for a major event, indeed.