Maps of Future Continental Drift

[Kid_A]

I was wondering if there are any maps or gifs that show the movement of the tectonic plates over the next 500 million years or so.

I've read about the movements of the plates but I haven't been able to find a visual representation of this.

Does this exist anywhere?

[Q.E.D.]

I found this little applet which shows you the movement of the continents from now until 250 million years in the future when, apparently, all the continents will smash together again into a new Pangea. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the dates as you drag the animation through, but it's still pretty neat, I thought.

[Darwin's Finch]

Originally Posted by Q.E.D.

all the continents will smash together again into a new Pangea.

Keep in mind that Pangaea is the name of but one supercontinent. There have likely been others in Earth's past, and there will likely be others in its future. Earlier theorized supercontinents include Rodinia, Columbia, and Vaalbara, to name a few. A future supercontinent, should anyone be around to name it, would, of course, get a new name as well.


As for the future, just about every site I've checked out that mentions plate tectonics projected into the future points back to the site linked to by Q.E.D.. As mentioned, that projection only goes to about 250 million years in the future. I haven't seen anything that projects beyond that.

[Kid_A]

Thanks for the link. To clarify, I picked 500 million years off the top of my head. 250 million is just as good for my purposes.

I'm surprised that it hasn't been easy to find, it seems like the exact kind of useless thing that the Internet was invented for.

[Q.E.D.]

Originally Posted by Darwin's Finch

Keep in mind that Pangaea is the name of but one supercontinent.

That's what the site in my link calls it: "The Assembly of "Pangea Ultima." It's as good a name as any for it. Personally, I don't care what we call it.

[Stranger On A Train]

Originally Posted by Kid_A

Thanks for the link. To clarify, I picked 500 million years off the top of my head. 250 million is just as good for my purposes.

I'm surprised that it hasn't been easy to find, it seems like the exact kind of useless thing that the Internet was invented for.

You have to remember, plate tectonics has only existed as a theory for about 45 years, and widely accepted for even less than that. As a theory, it's still pretty young (though well substantiated) and our understanding of all of the details and implications is limited, to say the least. In many ways, we know more about what happened billions of years ago at the edge of the visible universe than we know about what is going on a few miles under foot.

Stranger

[gouda]

Nice to see that Goa (western coast of India) should still have it's beaches 250 millions years from now

[Hypno-Toad]

It's weird that the supercontinent gets put back togther in roughly the same way it was torn apart. I thought that the Atlantic was going to keep expanding from the middle and that the Pacific plate was the one that got eaten up and subducted. That would have put the west coast of the US up against Asia. Go figure.

[Baffle]

You'll notice on the map that Africa meets up with North America this time, which is a slight difference.

[Tibby or Not Tibby]

Originally Posted by gouda

Nice to see that Goa (western coast of India) should still have it's beaches 250 millions years from now

Yeah, but I’m losing mine. Instead of boogie boarding into the Atlantic Ocean, I’ll be boogie boarding into Western Africa (…well, that’s assuming I knew how to boogie board…and I live another 250m years).

[Polycarp]

I rather like the idea that (southern and Baja) California and Australia led by New Guinea will be converging on Alaska!