Today the earth consists of seven continents.
But researchers assume that in 200 million years our planet will look like it did 200 million years ago.
Munich - Today the earth consists of seven continents: Africa, North and South America, Europe, Australia, Antarctica and Asia.
In between there is a lot of water.
But the picture of our blue planet will change.
There will be a single continent again.
Seven becomes one.
Land masses on earth are already migrating to other parts of the world
The super-continent will not become a reality anytime soon, but only in around 200 million years.
Researchers are certain that it will happen.
Once before, the earth consisted of only one huge part: the primordial continent of Pangea.
Then a process began over millions of years.
Pangea broke apart, land masses drifted away.
The earth as we know it today was created.
"We can still observe this drifting apart of the continents today," explained Dr.
Bernhard Steinberger, who as a geophysicist at the research center in Potsdam studies the formation of super-continents, in the
picture.
But at the same time land masses are migrating to other parts of the world, such as Australia, which is drawing closer to Indonesia, or the Indian subcontinent, which is pressing on Asia.
Researchers do not know where the supercontinent will be created on earth
“The continents are in constant motion.
Causes are geological processes in our deep interior.
Ocean floors and the various tectonic plates are moving, ”Steinberger continues. Based on such geological processes, according to Steinberger, it is very likely that the new super-continent will emerge.
But what exactly will the earth look like in around 200 million years?
What is drifting where, where is the super-continent emerging?
The US space agency NASA, which had recently discovered a new planet, calculated two possible scenarios.
Either a coherent land mass is created at the equator or the continents move north and form the supercontinent with the North Pole.
The earth is facing a pole shift that could destroy its radiation protection.
(mt)
