Via New Scientist online: http://environment.newscientist.com/...d=FPPFLLPFPOLL
This new Pangea would not be a pleasant place; it would be prone to climatic extremes, stormy, and extremely arid over much of its surface, according to this article. Habitable areas would be restricted to very narrow zones on the continent, and the authors of the article forecast mass extinctions accompanying the supercontinent's formation.The most recent, Pangaea, formed 300 million years ago and was already breaking up 100 million years later as the dinosaurs evolved. Some 1.1 billion years ago, another supercontinent, called Rodinia, formed, breaking up 250 million years later...What is generally agreed is that there have been two true supercontinents containing all or nearly all the land on Earth - Pangaea and Rodinia - and there may have been many more true or partial supercontinents, including Pannotia, Columbia, Kenorland and Ur..Right now, we are halfway through a cycle. The Pacific is gradually closing, as oceanic crust sinks into subduction zones in the north Pacific, while the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is feeding out new ocean floor as the Americas move apart from Europe and Africa. Africa is moving northward, heading for the southern coast of Europe, while Australia is also on its way north towards south-east Asia....If the Atlantic continues to widen, the Americas will eventually crash into Asia. Alternatively, a subduction zone might somehow open up in the Atlantic and reel the sea floor back in, forcing Europe and America back together. This would essentially re-create Pangaea.
Fortunately, this dire event is not forecast to occur until 250 MY hence.
There is no accompanying ref to a peer-reviewed paper, unfortunately.
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Originally Posted by grant hutchison
