What will the next Supercontinent look like?

What is it about?

Supercontinents have existed in the ancient past before Pangea. Because of plate tectonics and continental drift, the continents have joined and separated, and oceans have opened and closed in a cyclic pattern over the billions of years the Earth has existed. Because of this pattern called the Supercontinent cycle, we can try to predict what will happen in the future. Pangea existed before us, then it broke up to form the Atlantic ocean, and because of the Supercontinent cycle, the continents will all re-converge. Where on Earth though? And which ocean will close to let the continents re-converge?

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Why is it important?

Of all the geological periods in Earth history, we know the most about the present-day. This is because the further back in time you go the less evidence there is to tell you about that period in history. Rock is eroded, it sinks into the mantle via subduction zones, or is buried too deep to examine. We are testing four possible scenarios for the development of the next Supercontinent and continental drift into the future. Using the present-day is not only necessary, but also provides us with an excellent starting point. We know where and how fast all the current continental plates are drifting so we can use those movements to try and predict what will happen. This work is important because it tests the current state of the art of geology and tectonics, and current theories about how past supercontinents formed. With this work we have also made a well resolved timeline of the Earth from one supercontinent (Pangea) to the next, and finally, with this work we can conduct tidal modelling into the future to assess whether continental drift and the changing size of the oceans has any effect on the strength of the tides.

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