Next Supercontinent Will Form in Arctic, Geologists Say

[Judi Lynn]

Next Supercontinent Will Form in Arctic, Geologists Say
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: February 8, 2012

Geologists have long predicted that North and South America will eventually fuse together and merge with Asia, forming a new supercontinent along the lines of the ancient Pangea — the precursor to today’s great land masses, which separated about 200 million years ago.

In the past, researchers had guessed that the new continent, often called Amasia, would form either in the same location as Pangea, closing over the Atlantic near present-day Africa, or 180 degrees away, on the other side of the world.

But a new study predicts that Amasia will form over the Arctic Ocean.

“The fusion of North and South America together will close the Caribbean Sea and meet Eurasia at the present-day North Pole,” said Ross Nelson Mitchell, a geologist at Yale University, who worked on the study as part of his doctoral research.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/amasia-supercontinent-will-form-in-the-arctic-geologists-predict.html?_r=1&src=mv&ref=science

[laconicsax]

1. Fun!

Higher-latitude climates are awesome

[Lint Head]

2. I love this kind of science.

Of course republicans think all science is BS

[DCKit]

3. Wait for it.... nt

[Warpy]

4. The motion of the plates

plus the fact that the Atlantic is spreading along the central ridge should have told them that a long time ago.

[pokerfan]

5. I don't want to live in a world without a Caribbean...

but on the plus side, Rio de Janeiro will be closer so flights should be cheaper.

[libinnyandia]

6. It will be a lot harder to keep illegals from coming up from the south.

[Yo_Mama]

7. Won't the world be really cold then?

Anyone up on those theories currently? The last I remember, the theory was that land mass formation, and where the land masses were, greatly affected albedos?

Just wondering, not expecting to deal with this problem in the near future.

[glinda]

8. Humans will be extinct.

[HopeHoops]

9. If the world is lucky, yeah.

We're the only species that actually INTENTIONALLY fucks up our own environment, along with that of every other species. The world will get along just fine without us, and probably much better.

[AlecBGreen]

10. wow thats a pretty bleak world view

you actually want humanity to go extinct? wouldnt it be better to just get our shit together instead?

edit - on re-reading, I cant tell if you want that to happen or if you mean it would just be the best thing possible for the earth. sorry if I misinterpreted you.

[HopeHoops]

11. I meant it from the perspective of what's best for Earth. We've certainly fucked it up.

I think it was getting along fine until we started polluting everything, destroying old-growth forests, bombing the piss out of everything - they never count the number of dead bunny rabbits.

We're vastly overpopulated in many areas around the world and treat the land as if we own it. I don't care what a piece of paper says about "ownership", we're merely tenants. Yes it is a bleak world view. I would love to think that we could "get our shit together", but history says otherwise. We'll always be at war for the sake of war. We'll always be slaves to the system of the few that own everything.

If we could prove, beyond any doubt, that our actions gave us 150 years before all life on the planet was extinct, the ones with the money would accept the fact and not give a shit because that's after they will die and after their kids and grandchildren will die. Fuck anything beyond that.