When we look at world maps, it appears that the continents are evenly distributed. It is true that there is more water than land, but the land masses seem spread out. In reality, it’s not quite like that.
If we take a globe and rotate it towards the Pacific Ocean, we can position it so that all we see is water.
On the opposite side, we see a lot of land, if we focus on Africa, Europe and Asia. The question is: why do continents they are all grouped together?
We can, and especially the supercontinent cycle. To be strict, the continents are still moving away each other, note the .
The Atlantic is rising and pushing the Americas away from Europe and Africa. Still, they were not distributed more evenly across the planet and maybe they never will.
Every 300 to 500 million years, most continents end up joining together into one supercontinentea vast region formed by several tectonic plates above sea level.
For a group to be considered a supercontinent, it is necessary that contains at least 75% of all land masses. Although Europe, Asia and Africa are linked, they cover only 57% of the Earth’s total surface.
It existed and lasted from 336 million years ago to 175 million years ago. We are still dealing with the breakup of Pangea. And, most famously, we can see how the coasts of South America and Africa fit together perfectly.
Before Pangea existed Gunnaaniwhich is not always recognized as a supercontinent, and many others whose names are less known to the general public.
The lesson to be learned is that forces of continental drift move continents across the Earth’s surface. Over hundreds of millions of years, continents are pulled towards each other, forming supercontinentswhich then fragment just as easily with which they were formed.
Thus, in the next tens of millions of years, the distribution will be less concentrated, with Eurasia moving east and the Americas moving west.
Later, they may come closer again, and a future supercontinent will begin to form. According to geologists João Duarte and Filipe Rosashere 300 million years ago, .
Until then, it is possible see the Earth as a big blue spherewith few land masses – you only need to be in orbit over the South Pacific, an ocean so vast that it has its own antipodes. At this point, the pale blue dot is actually a deep blue sphere.
