120 million years ago – in the Early Cretaceous period – UAE cities Dubai and Abu Dhabi looked very different. In fact, they were underwater.
The earth has changed dramatically over the last 4.5 billion years, and a new interactive online map will let you see just how that has affected your hometown, city or country.
According to the map – which was created by California paleontologist Ian Webster – the UAE stayed underwater still attached to the coast of what would become Africa until 35-million years ago, when it rose above the water in the Mid Tertiary period.
People around the world are sharing the map online, along with images of where their homes would have been millions of years ago.
The map uses GPlates, a software that visualizes plate tectonics – as well as current and historic map data.
You can play around with the map right here.
According to Webster, the map “shows that our environment is dynamic and can change,” he told CNN.
“The history of Earth is longer than we can conceive, and the current arrangement of plate tectonics and continents is an accident of time. It will be very different in the future, and Earth may outlast us all.”
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