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Graphic toont hoe onze planeet eruit kan zien wanneer de Atlantische Oceaan zo goed als verdwenen is, en zodoende de Amerika's met Eurafrike verbindt.
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MILIEU

De wereld - over 250 miljoen jaar

August 29, 2018 - Door de constante beweging van de tectonische platen van de aarde zal over zo’n 250 miljoen jaar een nieuw supercontinent, Pangaea Proxima, ontstaan, zo voorspelt de gerenommeerde geoloog Christopher Scotese.

Continental drift (the movement of tectonic plates under the Earth’s surface) only became an accepted theory in the 1960s. Since then, geologists have gained a firmer understanding of how continents moved in the past, and believe multiple super-continents existed in cycles throughout our planet’s history.

The most recent landmass, Pangaea, broke apart almost 250 million years ago, resulting in the globe we are familiar with today.

Geologists agree that Africa and Europe are currently on a slow collision course, pushing up the Alps and Pyrenees along the way. Eventually the Mediterranean Sea will disappear and the two continents will become one mega-continent: Eurafrica.

Scotese, based at the University of Texas, believes we are in the middle of an expanding and contracting cycle. By extrapolating historical data, he predicts that the Atlantic Ocean will slowly close over the next 250 million years and the Americas will collide with Eurafrica to form Pangea Proxima.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 29/08/2018; STORY: Graphic News
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