Super Continents – giant landscapes made up of multiple continents – could re-emerge on Earth 200 million years from now, and where they form on Earth could have a profound effect on our planet’s atmosphere.
Scientists recently modeled this “future and future” view of the Earth with supercontinental transformation, presenting their findings at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) held online this year. They discovered two scenarios: first, in the future about 200 million years, almost all continents were pushed into the Northern Hemisphere, with Antarctica All left alone in the Southern Hemisphere; In the second scenario, about 250 million years into the future, a giant inertia forms around the equator and extends into the northern and southern hemispheres.
For both, the researchers calculated the impact on the global environment based on the topography of the supercontinents. They were surprised to learn that when the continents were pushed together north and the terrain was mountainous, global temperatures were significantly cooler than other models. Such results could create a deeper stability in contrast to the Earth’s past at least 100 million years, scientists have noted in the AGU.
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The continents of the earth do not always look like they do today. Over the last billion billion years, the planet has gone through several periods where continents first gathered to form supercontinents and then collapsed, said Michael Way, a physicist at NASA’s Gardard Institute for Space Studies. New York.
The most recent was the supernatural Pengia, Which existed about 300 million to 200 million years ago and now includes Africa, Europe, North America and South America. The penguin was previously the supercontinent Rodinia, which existed 900 million to 700 million years ago, and was preceded by Nuna, which formed 1.6 billion years ago and broke down 1.4 billion years ago. Previously reported.
Another team of scientists modeled the previous distant future supercontinents. They will join the continents gathered around the supercontinental equator known as “ur Rika” in 250 million years, while “Amasia” will come around. North Pole. For the new study, Way and his team took the landmasses of urica and amasia and various stationary subjects – very mountainous; Flat and close to sea level; Or mostly flat but with some mountains – and plugging them into the so-called rotation model Roke-3D, Said Wayne to living science.
In addition Plate tectonics, Other parameters, based on how the earth changes over time, informed the calculations of models for deeper future Earths. For example, 250 million years from today, the Earth will spin a little slower than it did considering the model, Way explained.
“The Earth’s rotation rate is slowing down over time – if you move 250 million years into the future, the length of the day increases by about 30 minutes, so we put it into the model to see if it has an effect,” Way said. The sun’s luminosity will also increase slightly in 250 million years, “because the sun is slowly getting brighter over time,” he said. “We also put it in the model, so we increased the amount of radiation that the planet sees.”
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The most unexpected result in their model dello was that global temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, with the mountain Amassia supercontinent, were colder than about .2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (degrees degrees Celsius). This was largely due to the Albedo response to strong snow. Snow and ice in the northern continent at northern latitudes formed a permanent cover on the ground during the summer and winter months, “said Wei,” and it keeps surface temperatures a few degrees cooler than all other scenarios, “Wei said.
By comparison, in the low-mountain Amasia models, lakes and inland seas were able to form. They transferred atmospheric heat from the equator to the north, melting ice and snow according to the season so that the land did not freeze permanently.
On Earth, the ocean circulation travels around, carrying heat to the far northern regions. Greenland And through the bearing straight. “When a massive formation forms and it comes close to roads,” then you can’t transfer the heat of the warm ocean to lower latitudes or from south summer to north by melting things to keep things warm, “Way said.
Earth’s most recent ice age spanned thousands of years. But the formation of Amasia could usher in an ice age that will last significantly longer.
“In this case, we’re talking about 100 million years, 150 million years,” Way said.
What might that mean for life on earth? As tropical lowlands disappear, so can the incredible biodiversity they support. However, new species may emerge that may be more suited to survive in extremely cold climates, as they did during the previous ice age.
“When you give Evolution enough time, it finds a way to somehow fill every ecological structure,” Way said. And in a situation like this, where an exceptionally cold planet will dominate for 100 million years or more, “he said, there is so much time to work for evolution.”
Published on Original Living Science.
