What will the Earth look like in 250 million years?

There's a pretty neat site called the Paleo-Map Project which creates really deep-time continental position maps, but has also created some maps of possible future continental positions.

We all know Pangea, from about 250 million years ago:


And of course we know what the Earth looks like today:


But how about 50 million years from now? Looks like Africa colides into Europe creating mountains where the Mediterranean used to be, Antarctica moves north, and Siberia and Alaska colide. Most interestingly, the Caribbean and Scotia subduction zones suppsoedly expand to create a huge East Coast subduction zone.


How about 150 million years from now? Looks like Antarctica and Australia colide again, and Mid-Atlantic Spreading Ridge has been almost entirely swallowed up by the East Coast trench as the "old world" supercontinent moves west.



And 250 million years from now? Get ready for an hour drive between New York and Cape Town! Pretty wild, if you ask me. Interestingly, the Indian Ocean looks like it will have no global circulation and may be end up being a low oxygen, high salinity sea: Like the Dead Sea, only GIANT.

Of course, mankind will have died out millions of years eariler.

I hope the Earth, by then, is restored back to before man. That nature will have taken over again.

/dumbass

when it was cut off from tha Atlantic dried up (mostly, anyways).

Imagine a dried oceanic basin, at points a thousand or more metres below sea level, with a greatly raised atmospheric pressure, and a day time tempurature soaring in to the 50s (celsius). I can also imagine, strewn across the vast plain, endless fossil remains of coke cans, used tires, condoms, and spent consumer electonics...

That's freaky, man...:smoke:

The earliest we can reconstruct was called Rodinia, then Pannotia and second Pannotia, and the Pangea, and then in 250 million years this second Pangea, which the author of these maps calls Pangea Ultima.

This was Rodinia:

and giant landwalking squid!

Oh sorry, lost in that Discovery special :)

:shrug:

Baja slides up the west coast and is off the coast of Alaska in the 50MY map, but since there is a subduction zone marked there, I suspect it stays put and has accreted terranes smushed onto it from the Pacific.

Hawai'i... Well the hot spot will eventually go away and the islands will erode down to nothing, and eventually be subducted under Asia.

sniff..sniff

But then that may be a good thing. It can go back to the natives.

the sun will become a red giant star and (probably) expand to a radius bigger than the orbit of the earth, so the earth will be just a burnt cinder inside the sun!

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae276.cfm

They are so lucky.

250 million years from now?

Thanks for that. :D

I always thought the Rift Valley in Africa was another sea being born, an expanding subduction zone, as it were. I guess not.

Isn't it strange that Madagascar is still independent for all these millions of years?

The rift valley IS a new sea opening up, and so is the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Rift Valley may become an aulucogen (failed arm of a triple junction), but there should be SOME remnant of the Red-Aden-Rift spreading center. I'm also skeptical of the east coast subduction complex.... As far as I can tell, the Scotia and Caribbean subduction complexes are remnants of the Faralon subduction complexes which is what uplifts the Andes and Cascades today.

Did they offend someone a long time ago?

How come none of the continents want to play with them?

And, more seriously, what plate is it on?

It was part of East Gondwana pre-Gondwana. When Pangea split up, and all of Gondwana came apart Madagascar split off on India. I think it's on the Indo-Australian plate, but I suspect that's really three plates, and Indian, and Australian, and a Madagascar plate. I suspect it'll end up slamming into the Arabian Penninsula.