In 250 Million Years, Earth Will Become a Supercontinent (But You Won’t Like It)
Alex Farnsworth and Chris Scotties
Our Earth after 250 million years (illustration). Credit: Alex Farnsworth and Chris Scotties
Planet – You definitely know Pangea. But Pangea Ultima, or the next Pangea, is less well-known: it is nonetheless the future of us all. On a very distant horizon (250 million years, anyway), continental drift will have led them directly into each other. They will then have rebuilt the same continent, as at the beginning. But don’t expect your grandchildren to live there…
As described in a study published in the journal natureThis future version of our Earth is not really welcome Homo sapiens. The air, in particular, would not be suitable for his organism, with temperatures easily exceeding 40 degrees and, above all, an atmosphere on Earth saturated with carbon dioxide. A surplus of carbon dioxide would not, for once, have anything to do with the “cars” that President Macron loves.
Volcanoes, deserts and carbon dioxide
Thus, the researchers explain, the convergence of the continents will not happen smoothly. With the movement of continental plates colliding with each other, volcanic activity will have been intense in the previous thousands of years. Scientists say giant volcanoes spew “enormous amounts of carbon dioxide” into the atmosphere.
Alex Farnsworth and Chris Scotties
The heat of Pangea’s terminal station would be unbearable for humans and most mammals. Source: Alex Farnsworth and Chris Scotties
but that is not all. The sun will add its own personal touch to this unattractive photo. In 250 million years, our star will be 2.5% brighter: smaller than today, and the nuclear reactions in its core will accelerate. For our planet, this means more solar radiation, and therefore more heat.
Because no two bad news come alone, having one supercontinent instead of several would lead to giant deserts inland. Lands that will no longer be able to exchange their minerals with an ocean thousands of kilometers away are doomed to collect dust carried by the winds…
Are we in this desolate landscape? For Alexander Farnsworth, a paleoclimatologist and co-author of the study, the ability to survive, for example in caves, is not completely ruled out. However, I’m not sure it’s a very enviable life: “If we could leave this planet to find a more habitable place, that would be the best solution.”
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