# What would happen if by some fluke of continental drift there was no land at the equator?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 3, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192 "2011-01-03T03:16:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@automagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/automagic)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/1 "2011-01-03T03:16:03Z")
Would there be a huge equatorial current? How would if affect climate?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/2 "2011-01-03T04:15:28Z")
Before the Isthmus of Panama formed about 3 million years ago, there was a strong current between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Closure of the isthmus completely changed oceanic circulation; it is thought that these changes helped initiate repeated glacial cycles in the northern hemisphere (the Ice Ages).
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### Author:  [@dukette71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dukette71)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/3 "2011-01-03T04:40:03Z")
I don’t think this can happen. My understanding (and I could totally be wrong, I don’t even remember where I learned this) is that the equator is on the stretch of earth with the most mass (land, mountains, etc), so I guess earth would tilt on it’s axis so that the most massive parts of the earth (land presumably) would be at the new equator. Maybe what used to be the equator would be like the Atlantic and Pacific with polar caps at each end.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/4 "2011-01-03T04:56:55Z")
> [@dukette71](#):
>
> I don’t think this can happen. My understanding (and I could totally be wrong, I don’t even remember where I learned this) is that the equator is on the stretch of earth with the most mass (land, mountains, etc), so I guess earth would tilt on it’s axis so that the most massive parts of the earth (land presumably) would be at the new equator. Maybe what used to be the equator would be like the Atlantic and Pacific with polar caps at each end.
This is completely wrong. A glance a globe will indicate that there isn’t nearly as much land at the equator as there is at 50 degrees North. The amount of mass in the continents is small compared to the entire mass of the Earth, and their position doesn’t cause the Earth to “tilt on its axis.” During the [Cretaceous](http://www.scotese.com/cretaceo.htm) there was very little land at the Equator.
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### Author:  [@dukette71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dukette71)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/5 "2011-01-03T05:12:14Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> This is completely wrong. A glance a globe will indicate that there isn’t nearly as much land at the equator as there is at 50 degrees North. The amount of mass in the continents is small compared to the entire mass of the Earth, and their position doesn’t cause the Earth to “tilt on its axis.” During the [Cretaceous](http://www.scotese.com/cretaceo.htm) there was very little land at the Equator.
Oh. Sorry for the wrong answer, I guess that is what the internet is for.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/6 "2011-01-03T05:22:33Z")
You should never get your science from old Jimmy Olsen comics.
> **[Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Vol 1 22](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Superman%27s_Pal,_Jimmy_Olsen_Vol_1_22)**
>
> "Mystery of the Millionaire Hoboes": When Jimmy Olsen swears that a hobo is really millionaire Roger Craig, Jimmy stumbles upon a strange situation: a group of rich and wealthy posing as the homeless and destitute. Jimmy takes on a disguise as "Hobo...
> [@](#):
>
> Synopsis for “The Super-Brain of Jimmy Olsen”
>
> Professor Potter comes by the Daily Planet with his latest invention, a device that would speed up a humans evolution to the point it would be in the year 1,000,000 A.D. and Jimmy – once more figuring this is yet another crackpot scientist – agrees to be a test subject for the machine. To everyone’s surprise, it manages to hyper-evolve Jimmy into a future human, complete with a large brain and vast mental powers. Professor Potter’s device would effect Jimmy for only 12 hours before reverting him back to normal.
>
> The usually kind and outgoing Jimmy has been replaced by an arrogant and superior minded being who begins using his mental powers to strong arm Perry White into allowing him to work on a secret project. When Superman arrives, the future-Jimmy usese his mental powers to learn Superman’s secret identity and orders him to do as he says otherwise he will reveal Superman’s secret identity.
>
> Having him go about the Earth and dig craters and fill them with other items, Superman eventually gets tired of these tasks with no explanation but is forced to continue when it turns out this future-Jimmy has Kryptonite vision. Upon returning from his last mission for Jimmy, Superman finds a note explaining to him that the future-Jimmy had determined that the Earth was unbalanced and if weren’t corrected the Earth would have exploded, his forceful demands helped save the Earth from a fate similar to that of Krypton.
Superman actually digs the giant crater in Antarctica and fills it with “millions of tons” of objects, because when super-brain Jimmy looked at a globe he saw that the continents are mostly north of the equator, throwing the weight of the earth off.
This was before we understood continental drift. We know now that the visible continents are a light skim of froth that easily and constantly move along the surface. Their weight is neligible compared to the whole. Their location may have effects on climate - air weighs even less than land, but not on the earth itself.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/7 "2011-01-03T05:28:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> . The amount of mass in the continents is small compared to the entire mass of the Earth…
People also tend to forget that continents float. They are composed of lower density rock than the ocean basins.
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### Author:  [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/8 "2011-01-03T17:43:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> A glance a globe will indicate that there isn’t nearly as much land at the equator as there is at 50 degrees North.
While you’re otherwise right, it isn’t correct to use this statement to disprove **dukette** ’s hypothesis. It is not possible to tilt the Earth to shift a latitude line to become a new equator. Instead, one can disprove the hypothesis by finding a great circle with more land along it than the current equator.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/9 "2011-01-03T21:53:35Z")
> [@dukette71](#):
>
> I don’t think this can happen. My understanding (and I could totally be wrong, I don’t even remember where I learned this) is that the equator is on the stretch of earth with the most mass (land, mountains, etc), so I guess earth would tilt on it’s axis so that the most massive parts of the earth (land presumably) would be at the new equator. Maybe what used to be the equator would be like the Atlantic and Pacific with polar caps at each end.
As I understand it, that won’t happen to the Earth because the presence of the Moon stabilizes its axis. Without the Moon it could happen; I recall reading that it apparently happened to Mars in ancient times. Major volcanic activity caused a concentration of mass, and the crust slid over the mantle until the mass was at the equator. They can tell because Mars is covered with craters from captured asteroids that eventually crashed, leaving oblong craters at the equator; the older craters form a ring that is no longer at the present equator.
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### Author:  [@automagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/automagic)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/10 "2011-01-03T22:28:06Z")
Regardless of how the earth is tilted, with respect to its plane of orbit around the sun, the equator will never change. Even if the earth were to be tilted 90 degrees the equator would always be the part of the earth that is spinning the fastest.
The moon does regulate the earths tilt by being tidally locked to it (the same side of the moon is always facing the earth) but that would never change where the equator is. The land over the equator can certainly change due to continental drift, but the land masses, whether they are over the equator or not, has nothing to do with where the earths equator is or the tilt of the earth.
My original question was what type of current would exist at the equator if there was no land in the way? Would it be a very fast current?
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### Author:  [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-by-some-fluke-of-continental-drift-there-was-no-land-at-the-equator/566192/11 "2011-01-03T22:36:39Z")
> [@automagic](#):
>
> Would there be a huge equatorial current? How would if affect climate?
You mean like [Rodinia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodinia) and the [Snowball Earth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth) hypothesis?