One continent?

Question

The world was once a big land mass but it seperated into different continents.As the plates are still moving will we become one continent again?

Answer 1

Pangaea was the latest supercontinent, but it was probably not the first and will almost certainly not be the last. It is probable that all the landmasses will again meet to form another supercontinent in the very distant future.

Answer 2

During the Triassic period about 300 million years ago the entire landmass of Earth was indeed a single continent called Pangea.

This supercontinent eventually broke up due to tectonic stress into two large continents called Gondwanland and Laurasia.

Gondwanaland included Africa, South America, Australasia and Antartica. This is proven by fossil records, especially plant fossils. Laurasia included Europe, Asia and North America, proven by mountain ranges and fossils record.

Eventually tectonic stresses broke South America from Africa and North America from Europe forming the Atlantic Ocean. This opening provided the evidence for Alfred Wagner to propose his theory of Continental Drift which eventually became accepted in Tectonics.

Today Africa is moving north into Europe, causing the Alps to continue growing. India does the same to Asia forcing the Himalayas to grow further. Eventually the Pacific Ocean will close up as will the Atlantic as all the Oceanic crust gets subducted below the Continental crust. Perhaps one day millions of years in the future the continents will all join up but it could well be another 300 million years so don't worry.

Answer 3

Unlikely.

The land masses are so fragmented that they are unlikely to join as a single mass. There may be super-sized contintents but there will be many smaller (but still sizeable) seperate land masses.

Answer 4

Yes it was called Pangea. All land masses were connected together.

Answer 5

It may as well happen that these continents break into numerous smaller surfaces, thus becoming islands, I suppose...

Answer 6

it was called Pangea.. and no, they wont join up... the old mating faces are opposite the direction of travel...

the himalayas were created when the pacific tectonic plate met the indian plate... and kept on going...

so, the whole western seaboard will eventually crush itself against china... thatll be nice for them...

Answer 7

Its called the Wilson Cycle...look it up :)

Answer 8

That's a long way off , but someday it will happen .

Answer 9

I guess. We would be called Pangea once again....;)

Answer 10

Not in our lifetime!