The future age of Plate Tectonics

 Our text book this week gives us a peer into the distant future of plate tectonics and

where the continents will shift in the next 50 – 250 million years. In this distant future

scientist predict that we can expect to see the San Andreas fault slide past the North

American plate causing Los Angeles and San Francisco to pass each other (Edward J.

Tarbuck, 2015, p. 229). We can also expect to see drastic movements from Africa colliding

with Eurasia which will result in the closing of the Mediterranean (Edward J. Tarbuck, 2015,

p. 229). One of the greatest things to note is the next supercontinent. This prediction takes

place 250 million years from now where all of the continents will be back together, since

Pangea, in the result of a second supercontinent (Edward J. Tarbuck, 2015, p. 229). This may

form as a result of subduction of the floor of the Atlantic Ocean resulting in the collision of

the Americas with the Eurasian-African landmass (Edward J. Tarbuck, 2015, p. 229). This

means you could actually walk from one area to another like Australia to Alaska! This could

possibly cause new mountain ranges, earthquakes and continental boundaries due to possible

plate tectonic catastrophes like continental collisions (Baraniuk, 2016). According to

Baraniuk, “Earth’s continents rest on a system of plates and these move at differing speeds.

Some travel about 1.2in (30mm) per year while others might move at five times that rate.

These are roughly the speeds at which human fingernails and hair grow,

respectively”(Baraniuk, 2016).

Bibliography

Baraniuk, C. (2016, August 1).In 250 million years Earth might only have

one continent. Retrieved from BBC: earth:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100326101117.htm

Edward J. Tarbuck, F. K. (2015).Earth Science(14 ed.). Upper Saddle River:

Pearson Education, Inc. .