(ORDO NEWS) — The world map is outdated. Africa is bursting at the seams. North America has moved half a meter. The Alps and Everest are growing by leaps and bounds.
A new island has appeared in the Pacific Ocean. What is happening to the planet? What will the world of the future be like? And why should Africans learn Hindi?
Division of Africa
Somalia will move to India, and new Carpathians will grow in Eurasia. This will be our planet in the future. Scientists from the University of Utrecht have modeled the appearance of the Earth in 200 million years.
According to researchers, the map of the world will change beyond recognition. South and North America will collide with each other, and Africa will come apart at the seams.
“The piece of land on which Somalia is now located will separate from Africa and collide with the lands of India.
As a result of this collision, huge Somali mountains are formed, they will be curved like the Carpathians,” said paleogeographer Dauwe van Hinsbergen.
Scientists assure: none of the living people will find this “transition”. But the division of Africa has already begun.
Three years ago, a giant fissure appeared in southwestern Kenya. The abyss several kilometers long and 15 meters deep is even visible from space.
“The crack did not appear suddenly, this process lasts for millions of years.
The Somali and Nubian lithospheric plates are moving away from each other and form gaps on the surface of the earth.
Usually such voids are filled with volcanic dust, but heavy rains in Africa have washed away this layer and now the crack has opened,” explained geologist Ben Andrews.
Sixth ocean
According to scientists’ forecasts, a new sixth ocean will eventually form at the site of the crack, which will divide Africa into two parts. Experts are sure that there is nothing supernatural in this: the continents have already split apart more than once.
“Similar processes influenced the separation of South America and Africa, initially it was one continent – Western Gondwana.
And even earlier, about 300 million years ago, all the continents were one part of the land called Pangea,” said Ben Andrews.
Continents drift due to the movement of the earth’s crust, more precisely, the lithospheric plates. In the process, they collide and move away from each other.
But the speed is so slow and the distances are so small that people just don’t feel it. But the movement never stops. Scientists use this data to predict natural disasters and extract fresh water.
New island
Movement of the earth’s crust is the main cause of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. But without this phenomenon, there would be no mountains on the planet. In Turkey and Iran, the ridges appeared due to the movement of the Arabian lithospheric plate.
Every year, it seems to move under the Eurasian one by as much as 3 centimeters. It sounds like nothing, but in fact it changes the face of our planet, because the mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, which are called Zagros, are getting higher by 5-10 millimeters annually.
Scientists have found out: due to underground movements over the past thousand years, the Alps have grown by 40 centimeters, Everest – by almost a meter.
And off the coast of the Kingdom of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean, a whole island appeared. For the first time, a new piece of land was noticed 13 years ago after the eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga.
What happened to the mysterious island?
Typically, these islands do not live long. They are destroyed by winds and waves. Just a couple of months, and not a trace remains of a piece of land. But this time everything turned out exactly the opposite.
The island continued to grow and doubled in size six years later. Three years ago it was investigated by NASA experts. Expedition commander James Garvin found the first inhabitants of the new land.
“Several species of plants and birds have already occupied the island. We are trying to understand whether it is suitable for human habitation.
The surface of the island resembles the soil on other planets in its properties.
This study will help us in the colonization of space in the future,” said Space Flight Center researcher James Garvin.
Fortunately, people did not have time to develop new lands. In January last year, the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga woke up again.
The power of the eruption was estimated at 10 megatons of TNT, which is 500 times stronger than the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
The capital of Tongo was covered with ash, the Japanese prefecture of Kochi was covered by a tsunami, sensors recorded a sharp jump in atmospheric pressure. And the newborn island in the Pacific Ocean has almost disappeared from the face of the earth.
Changing the coordinates of Mexico
Movement of lithospheric plates can lead to a global catastrophe. Two years ago, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 was recorded in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Tremors destroyed thousands of houses, 10 people died.
But it turned out that these were not the worst consequences of a natural disaster. NASA researchers noticed that the country’s coordinates on satellite maps had shifted by 45 centimeters. How and why this happened, scientists cannot explain.
What’s next for our planet?
Mexico lies entirely on the North American Plate. If the coordinates of the country have shifted by almost half a meter, then the entire mainland has moved.
A powerful earthquake is just the beginning. What irreversible processes are going on in the depths of the continent, even scary to imagine.
Scientists estimate that the North American Plate is moving southwest at a rate of 3 centimeters per year. In 10 million years, it will collide with South America and form a new supercontinent.
At the same time, the Caribbean Sea will disappear, and new mountains will grow at the junction.
The collision of the continents will lead to earthquakes and tsunamis of unprecedented proportions. Moreover, natural disasters will affect not only the inhabitants of the American continents.
Neighboring lithospheric plates will begin to drift like dominoes. Researchers do not exclude the possibility that Pangea will again unite into one giant landmass.
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