According to scientists, all of the Earth’s continents are slowly moving towards eachother and over the next 300 million years, they’ll form a new supercontinent.
This supercontinent will be formed by Australia merging with Asia to form what researchers are calling Amasia.
A study conducted by Chuan Huang and his team was published in the National Science Review which explained why the Earth’s continents will collide.
Earth’s supercontinent cycle
“Over the past two billion years, Earth’s continents have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle.” said Huang.
“This means that the current continents are due to come together again in a couple of hundred of million years’ time.”
The team used 4D geodynamic modelling of the Earth’s tectonic plates in an attempt to understand why previous supercontinents, such as Novopangea and Pangea Ultima had both formed in their own distinct ways in the past.
The two main routes in which previous supercontinents are believed to have formed is through introversion or extroversion.
Introversion is when land masses come together, closing off an internal body of water or ocean, which was formed due to a previous supercontinent breaking apart.
In extroversion, the continents form over the former superocean and in the case of Amasia, scientists believe that it will be formed through this route as the Pacific Ocean will completely close up.
Think of it this way, introverts like to keep to themselves while extroverts prefer to branch out and socialise.
Amasia is an extrovert.
“Australia is also expected to play a role in this important Earth event, first colliding with Asia and then connecting America and Asia once the Pacific Ocean closes.”said Huang.
Will it be quicker to drive or fly?
Emirates airline recently entered a new partnership with United to provide the UAE with new flights to 200 American cities. One day, it won’t be as necessary to fly as people will be able to drive from Dubai to Los Angeles for example.
However, planes still travel much faster than cars, as the average commercial plane travels between 550 to 600 miles per hour, whereas the fastest car in the the world, the Hennessey Venom GT has a top speed of 270.49 miles per hour.
Hennessey Venom GT
The car also costs around $1.2 million which is much more expensive than a return trip from Dubai to Los Angeles on a First Class ticket which would cost you AED 53,455 (approx. $14,974). Based on that, traveling to LA via Emirates on any class ticket is more logical as it’s both cheaper and faster.
On another note, how many metro stops would there be along the way to Los Angeles? Let’s not think about that. It’s a problem for a future generation.