A Crack Under Ocean May Pull Europe and the Americas Together

You might know already that our planet hasn’t always been separated into seven continents. Once upon a time, it was all one huge supercontinent called Pangea. But the movement didn’t stop, so in the future, we might just be a couple continents short?

In 1755, there was a huge earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal that had catastrophic consequences. After that, everything went quiet, and for more than 200 years no more natural disasters happened. But then, in 1969, another earthquake shook the west of Portugal — this one milder, but it was still considered very powerful. It was then that marine geologist João Duarte started looking at the tectonic plates beneath Portugal. He was concerned with those earthquakes for a single reason: they were not normal...

TIMESTAMPS:
What a “normal” earthquake is 1:13
What’s so unusual about an earthquake in Portugal? 3:03
???? This research looks like bad news ???? 3:26
So what will happen to the planet? 5:29
The Atlantic Ocean might disappear. Wait, what?! ???? 6:21
How exactly our planet will become a supercontinent 8:09

#geology #continents #brightside

SUMMARY:
- Quakes happen when two tectonic plates meet, and one of them is forced underneath the other because of gravity and pressure.
- The plate beneath the continent of North America spreads to the northeast and covers the whole of Greenland and its coastal waters.
- So what’s so unusual about an earthquake in Portugal, then? The thing is, this country is far from any tectonic fault, and the plate it sits on is flat.
- Duarte’s team found that the plate they were looking at has been undergoing the process of serpentinization. It’s a natural process when the rock in the seabed absorbs water.
- You see, when tectonic masses move around, they eventually bump into each other. For now, there’s a set number of those plates, and they’re moving at a verrrry slow rate.
- The brand new tectonic plate will go underneath the Atlantic Ocean and collide with several other plates at once.
- It’ll be pushed under some of them and above others, but the result will be all the same: more and more subduction zones will start appearing, causing natural disasters… and the eventual disappearance of the Atlantic Ocean itself.
- If some newcomer shifts all the rest of the tectonic plates, it will eventually lead to water seeping away from the Atlantic Ocean.
- And while the movement of the plates continues — and it will go on until there’s space for that — the landscape of our planet will continue reshaping.
- Today, scientists believe that the Atlantic Ocean is opening, while the Pacific, on the contrary, is closing. If this tendency persists, then both American continents will go join the club with Africa and Eurasia.
- Don’t worry, though: this all might sound really cool, but geological processes take a lot of time.

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