An artistic rendering of what Pangea Proxima might look like.
Around 200 million years ago, the process known as continental drift began to shift portions of land apart.
Riding the tectonic plates, the continents separated and migrated to their current locations.
An artistic rendering of what Pangea Proxima might look like. (Photo: IANM36/Depositphotos)
Yet Earth’s surface is not static.
Continents continue to shift, causing the Himalayas torise slightlyeach year and the continents to continually, slowly move.
This supercontinent may takeseveral different forms.
The break up of the original Pangea into our present day map. (Photo:Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
Under a scenario known as Aurica, an equatorial continent forms.
Novopangea sees the Pacific Ocean closing.
For Pangea Ultima, or Proxima, the continents converge around a small ocean or sea.
What Pangea Proxima or Ultima may look like, as postulated by Paleomap Project. (Photo: Cgboeree viaWikimedia Commons,CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)
Pangea Proxima means the next pangea, harkening back to the prehistoric state of affairs.
[and] solar energy .
The authors conclude it will probably lead to a climate tipping point and their mass extinction.
The Sun will only get hotter as thestar ages, so the Earth will eventually face more radiation.
The dinosaurs went extinct in a similar event, althoughtheir crisiswas partly sparked by an asteroid impact and volcanoes.
We could end up with six or seven supercontinent cycles throughout Earth’s history.
The break up of the original Pangea into our present day map.
What Pangea Proxima or Ultima may look like, as postulated by Paleomap Project.
New paper alert Climate extremes likely to drive land mammal extinction during next supercontinent assembly in@NatureGeosci.
