Pangaea Proxima (also called Pangaea Ultima, Neopangaea, and Pangaea II) is a possible future

supercontinent In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continent, continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, some geologists use a different definition, "a grouping of formerly dispersed continents", ...

configuration. Consistent with the

supercontinent cycle The supercontinent cycle is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust. There are varying opinions as to whether the amount of continental crust is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same, but it is agreed ...

, Pangaea Proxima could occur within the next 200 million years. This potential configuration, hypothesized by

Christopher Scotese Christopher R. Scotese (born 4 May 1953) is an American geologist and paleogeographer. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985. He is the creator of the Paleomap Project, which aims to map Earth over the last billion years, ...

in November 1982, earned its name from its similarity to the previous

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...

supercontinent. Scotese later changed Pangaea Ultima (Last Pangaea) to Pangaea Proxima (Next Pangaea) to alleviate confusion about the name Pangaea Ultima which could imply that it would be the last supercontinent. The concept was based on examination of past cycles of formation and breakup of supercontinents, not on current understanding of the mechanisms of tectonic change, which are too imprecise to project that far into the future. "It's all pretty much fantasy to start with," Scotese has said. "But it's a fun exercise to think about what might happen. And you can only do it if you have a really clear idea of why things happen in the first place." Supercontinents describe the merger of all, or nearly all, of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

's landmass into a single contiguous

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

. In the Pangaea Proxima scenario,

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

at the western Atlantic, east of the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, leads to the subduction of the Atlantic mid-ocean ridge followed by subduction destroying the Atlantic and Indian basin, causing the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and Indian Oceans to close, bringing the

back together with Africa and Europe. As with most supercontinents, the interior of Pangaea Proxima would probably become a semi-arid desert prone to extreme temperatures.

Formation

According to the Pangaea Proxima hypothesis, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will continue to get wider until new subduction zones bring the continents back together, forming a future Pangaea. Most continents and microcontinents are predicted to collide with Eurasia, just as they did when most continents collided with Laurentia. Around 50 million years from now, North America is predicted to shift west and Eurasia would shift to the east, and possibly even to the south, bringing Great Britain closer to the North Pole and Siberia southward towards warm, subtropical latitudes. Africa is predicted to collide with Europe and Arabia, closing the Mediterranean Sea (thus completely closing the Tethys Ocean (or Neotethys)) and the Red Sea. A long mountain range (the Mediterranean Mountain Range) would then extend from Iberia, across Southern Europe and into Asia. Some are even predicted to have peaks higher than Mount Everest. Similarly, Australia is predicted to beach itself past the doorstep of Southeast Asia, causing the islands to be compressed inland, forming another potential mountain range. Meanwhile, Southern California, Southern and Baja California are predicted to have already collided with Alaska with new mountain ranges formed between them. About 125 million years from now, the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to stop widening and begin to shrink because the Mid-Atlantic Ridge will have been subducted. In this scenario, a mid-ocean ridge between South America and Africa will probably be subducted first; the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to have narrowed as a result of subduction beneath the Americas. The Indian Ocean is also predicted to be smaller due to northward subduction of oceanic crust into the Central Indian trench. Antarctica is expected to split into two and shift northwards, colliding with Madagascar and Australia, enclosing a remnant of the Indian Ocean, which Scotese calls the "Medi-Pangaean Sea". When the last of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is subducted beneath the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to close rapidly. At 250 million years in the future, the Atlantic is predicted to have closed, with only small vestiges of the former ocean remaining. North America is predicted to have collided with Africa, but be in a more southerly position than where it rifted away during the Mesozoic. South America is predicted to be wrapped around the southern tip of Africa and Antarctica, completely enclosing the Medi-Pangaean Sea, which becomes a supertoxic inland sea that begins to poison the surrounding oceans, lands and atmosphere, leading to the next great extinction event. The supercontinent is encircled by a global ocean, the Propanthalassic Ocean (meaning "future" Panthalassic Ocean), which encircles half the

. The Earth is expected to have a hothouse climate with an average global temperature of .

Models

There are two models for the formation of Pangaea Proxima - an early model and the current model. The two models differ in where they place Australia, Antarctica and Chukotka: The early model, created in 1982 and shown on the Paleomap Project website, places Australia and Antarctica connected to each other as a separate landmass to Pangaea Proxima, close to the South Pole, and Chukotka staying with Eurasia. The current model, created in 2001 and shown on Christopher Scotese's YouTube channel, has Australia attached to China, East Antarctica attached to South America, and West Antarctica attached to Australia, with Chukotka attached to North America (it is on the North American plate).

Other suggested supercontinents

Historical geology, Paleogeologist Ronald Blakey has described the next 15 to 85 million years of tectonic development as fairly settled and predictable, without supercontinent formation. Beyond that, he cautions that the geologic record is full of unexpected shifts in tectonic activity that make further projections "very, very speculative". In addition to Pangaea Proxima, two other hypothetical supercontinents—"Amasia (continent), Amasia" and "Novopangaea"—were illustrated in an October 2007 ''New Scientist'' article. Another supercontinent, Aurica (supercontinent), Aurica, has been suggested in more recent times. In the latest research, scientists discovered that Earth is undergoing certain unimaginable changes. The world might develop a new 'supercontinent' within 200 million to 300 million years as the Pacific Ocean is seen to be shrinking and closing. As per a Complex report, researchers from Curtin University in Australia and Peking University in China predicted that the Pacific Ocean's eventual disappearance would result in a geological reconfiguration of the planet. The study, which has been published in the National Science Review, emphasises how the world's oldest and largest ocean started shrinking at the time of the dinosaurs and is still losing a few millimeters each year. This process, together with the shifting of tectonic plates, will result in the construction of the "Amasia" supercontinent.

References

External links

Four possible future supercontinentsWhat Will Earth Look Like When the Next Supercontinent Forms? - NewsWeek
{{Continents of Earth Future supercontinents

Formation

Models

Other suggested supercontinents

References

Further reading

External links