Will earth become one single land mass soon?

Question

As you may or may not know, the earths plates are still moving the land around, Alaska closer to Russia, Australia to SE Asia, soon it might be possible to walk EVERYWHERE! (Not counting very small islands) Agree?

Answer 1

Not "soon" that's guaranteed. Yes, the land of the Earth is based upon "plates" that move due to Continental Drift made of of trenches and, over time, may move apart (ocean creations), together (mountain creations) or slide past each other causing earthquakes (Western Turkey and San Francisco for example have sliding plates).

Once, about 180 million years ago in the Juarrassic Age, the land mass was believed to be an entire continent called Pangea.

Through time the plates moved likely causing many earthquakes creating mountains and oceans. Look at an Atlas. Brazil fits perfectly into Western Africa, as does the Gulf of Mexico into the north western African land mass.

These are only 2 examples of the hordes of examples anyone can find on an atlas that proved it did happen. In your lifetime, the land you're on now will have moved about 10 metres from birth to death, as an idea of how slow the process is.

Now, what the hell will happen in, say 180 million years from now no one knows - but one way or another, these plates will continue to move in the approximate direction they have been in regardless of whether the oceans cover the land or not through climate change - whether natural or human intervention-induced.

Whether it will be a single land mass or whether, for example Europe and North America will join but not Australia since it is trailing too much I don't know.

But certainly Africa to Europe, Alaska to the USSR and N. America to Europe, since they have been proven to be getting closer.

Answer 2

The earth plates are moving indeed, but not as fast as you think. Only few cm a year! So don't stay and wait to walk from Asia to Australia very soon. Maybe in some hundred thousands years...

Answer 3

No, it will never happen. As the plates move, the parts of one that goes under the other eventually comes out as lava from a volcano. This is how the Hawaiian islands were formed and are still forming. And since they are islands in the middle of one of the biggest plates, the likelihood of all the landmasses returning to become one, will be remote.

Answer 4

I doubt it. Even though the plates are moving, the last time the continents were all one mass (Pangea) was about when the dinosaurs died, and we've still only drifted apart enough to form the Atlantic. The Pacific Ocean is much bigger, so even if we keep going at the same rate, and in the same direction, we have to cross it to end up against Asia.

Answer 5

As Bighorn so rightly points out the land is all of one. Which does raise interesting possibilities for the beggining of things in general.

Maybe that asteroid hitting Jupiter has already kicked off the next incarnation of life.

Or maybe two rocks colliding created that interminable spark that was the catalyst for creation.

Get yourself two pebbles and in the darkness of your own room strike them together like you would with a flint and steel, do you see the light.

Its a funny ol thing...

Answer 6

Not if you believe in plate tectonics. For example Europe and North America are moving away from each other at a very slow pace (about 3 inches a year) ... so as you can see it would take quite a while for Washington state and China to meet up :) ...

Answer 7

Yes it's going to happen. It didn't take hundreds of years to separate and may come back as a result of many earthquakes and volcanic explosions happening at once or close together. We don't know exactly how but have been told that it will happen. There will not be any islands left then, all land will be one.

Answer 8

i don't think so. if you look back 100million years youwould notice that the continents were much closer together than they are now, this shows that land masses are moving further away from each other. plus, with water levels rising at an alarming rate it would never be possible for there to be one land mass which you could walk over.

Answer 9

No in fact the complete opposite and the world will just be ocean and no land apart from the man made land which will be produced in millions of years to come and we don't need to know this because we will not be here but we still know.

Answer 10

where have you been. the earth is and always been 1 single land mass. i hope you are not one of those people that beleive in pangea. the contients do not float on the water. if you could drain all the water off the planet you would be able to walk around the earth.