Question: will all the countries and continents ever all join back together to make 1 land mass

Asked by horselover102 to Arti, Dustin, James, Steven on 23 May 2012.

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  1. Photo: James ByrneJames Byrne
    answered on 23 May 2012:

    They wont all join but they will keep moving like the slowest and most boring game of dodgem cars ever. Continents will bump into one another (in some cases underwater) continuously causing Earth tremors and associated natural disasters for the rest of time.

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  2. Photo: Dustin WelbourneDustin Welbourne
    answered on 23 May 2012:

    Hi Horselover,

    Unfortunately, James has led you astray.

    In the far future we it is predicted that we will see the formation of Pangea Ultima. But you will have to wait a while, about 150 – 200 million years.

    I would love to have a time machine and come back then to see what is here.

    Trusty ol wiki even has a picture.
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Pangea_Ultima.jpg

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  3. Photo: Steven TingaySteven Tingay
    answered on 23 May 2012:

    It has always seemed odd to me that the continents were all joined together at one time, with all that ocean dominating the rest of the planet. See my comments on other similar posts. I’m not sure that we can predict with any certainty when or if the continents will come back together. Systems such as these are quite complex, but operate over very long timescales. The continental drift is related to the movements of hot material below the Earth’s crust. The interior of the planet is not particularly well understood at the level of making very long term predictions. If the same geophysical forces were operating when the continents were joined up as operate today and in the future, then yes, it would be possible. It is also possible that something has changed in the way the Earth’s interior behaves over time as well.

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Comments

  1. Photo: pnemonoultramicroscopicsillicovolcanoconiosispnemonoultramicroscopicsillicovolcanoconiosis
    commented on 23 May 2012:

    I’m sad, James you might be evicted next 🙁

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  2. Photo: JamesJames
    commented on 24 May 2012:

    Well there you go. I was thinking in terms of what it would look like on the surface as I though there was a pretty large continental shelf. I guess I was trying to say it wouldn’t look like one large land mass because the continents would touch before the shore lines did. But as with all scientists I am happy to be proven wrong by facts.

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