Earth's Plate Tectonics May Eventually Stop

Natural History Magazine ^ | Aug 15, 2008 | Stephan Reebs

[decimon]

The Pacific is the biggest ocean on Earth, but it's getting smaller every day. Australasia and the Americas are inching closer together, and in about 350 million years the Pacific will effectively close.

That's when plate tectonics - the process driving all that slow motion, and one that geologists have assumed to be continuous - may grind to a halt.

[dirtboy]

I see what he's saying:

ate tectonics may have already taken a global hiatus 900 million years ago, when several continents collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia. The team says various geological indicators suggest that during Rodinia's 140-million-year existence, the world's plates were at a standstill.

140 million years ain't diddly in geological terms.

[LonePalm]

Brown Dwarf? I thought it would end up as a Red Dwarf.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[palomonte]

Rep. Clyburn just issued a statement that said that plate tectonics disproportionately affect the minority community.

[staytrue]

We probably could use electron guns to fire electrons into space leaving the earth with a net positive charge, coupled with earth’s spin, this would generate a global magnetic field.

Of greater concern is the carbon cycle where all the dead marine life sink to the bottom of the ocean trapping the carbon there.

I guess we could do massive dredging to recover the carbon.

The electron guns might be placed on mars to generate a magnetic field and then you need to crash a mostly icy comet into mars to get the water back.

[tatsinfla]

somebody call algore quick he must stop this.....

[hellbender]

That would be the Wilson cycle, I think. Named after J. Tuzo Wilson, who observed that the Atlantic Ocean (or another ocean in roughly the same position between N. America and Europe) had opened and closed several times. Somehow that did not stop plate tectonics, nor did the formation of Pangea after the last closure.

[El Gato]

Plate tectonics is driven by the circulation in the mantel of the earth. That in turn runs on energy from the core, which is a combination of decaying radioactives and residual heat left over from the formation of the planet (and perhaps whatever event created the moon).

250 million years ago there was only one continent, Pangea it has been called, there might once again be only one. But as long as the 'engine' at the earth's core is still running, that too will evenutally break up.

[decimon]

250 million years ago there was only one continent, Pangea it has been called, there might once again be only one. But as long as the 'engine' at the earth's core is still running, that too will evenutally break up.

That's how I read the article. That there would be a 'hesitation' following some continental coziness.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Speed 3 movie:

(350 million-year old Sandra Bullock) - "We've got to somehow slow down these continents from crashing."

(350 million-year old Keanu Reeves) - "WHOOAAA!"

[decimon]

(350 million-year old Al Gore) - “We have just ten years...”

[Night Hides Not]

This will mean fewer threads on FR.

Only after there's been 1.4 billion quarterly fundraisers.

...sorry...couldn't resist.

[MosesKnows]

may grind to a halt.

I was wondering when Al Gore would get around to tackling that pesky continnetial drift problem.

[decimon]

Only after there's been 1.4 billion quarterly fundraisers.

Most conducted by Will Robinson.

[hunter112]

In less than half the time it takes for that to happen, Earth will be irrelevant to the human race. If there still is a human race. We might well evolve to something considerably different in a tenth of that time.

[decimon]

In less than half the time it takes for that to happen, Earth will be irrelevant to the human race.

Given our current rate of technological advance, you'd think we'll be outta here within ten thousand years.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon.

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[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

That's how I read the article. That there would be a 'hesitation' following some continental coziness.

On a History Channel show about the history of the Earth, they projected that the Earth's core would cool enough to turn off tectonics in 4 billion years or so.

[Enchante]

"Australasia and the Americas are inching closer together, and in about 350 million years the Pacific will effectively close."

Maybe that's when Obambi was thinking we'd be up to "57 states" -- we'd welcome Australia, New Zealand, various Pacific island nations, etc.......

[rdl6989]

450 million years... I guess that means I really don’t need to wait up for it.

[Fred Nerks]

NEAL ADAMS EARTH PROJECT TOON.