Scientists say the new supercontinent “Amasia” will form when the Pacific Ocean disappears

Scientists have said that the Arctic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea will disappear over the next 200 to 300 million years, and Asia will collide with the Americas to form a new supercontinent called Amasya.

Researchers at Curtin University in Australia and Peking University in China report that the Pacific Ocean is slowly but constantly shrinking by about an inch each year. So, at some point – perhaps in 200 million to 300 million years – they think the land masses will come together and the Americas and Asia will collide to create a new supercontinent: Amasia.

“Over the past 2 billion years, the Earth’s continents have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle. This means that the current continents are set to meet again within a few hundred million years,” said Dr. Chuan Huang, lead author. For a study published in the journal National Science Review.

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The researchers explained that the Earth’s giant continents are believed to have formed in two vastly different ways – introverted and extroverted. “The first involves the closure of the inner oceans formed during the disintegration of the former supercontinent, while the second involves the closure of the former outer ocean,” they said. independent.

Now, by simulating Earth’s plate tectonics with a supercomputer, the team said they’ve been able to show that in less than 300 million years, the shrinking of the Pacific Ocean will give way to the formation of Amasia.

“The resulting new supercontinent has already been named Amasya because some believe the Pacific will close (as opposed to the Atlantic and Indian oceans) when America collides with Asia. Australia is also expected to play a role in this important land event, colliding with Asia and then connecting America and Asia once Pacific closure.

Experts believe that a new supercontinent will form on top of the Earth and will eventually retreat southward toward the equator. If this happens, Antarctica may remain isolated at the bottom of the world.

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The team explained that Australia is already drifting toward Asia at a rate of about 7 centimeters per year, while Eurasia and the Americas are moving at slower rates toward the Pacific.

In their study, the researchers predicted that with the formation of a new supercontinent, our planet could be expected to be very different from what it is now. “Earth is currently made up of seven continents with widely different human ecosystems and cultures, so it would be great to think about what the world will look like in 200 million to 300 million years,” they said.