Which Ocean Will Close First?

[BDanielMayfield]

Due to the movements of the Earth's tectonic plates over geologic time the Earth's oceans come and go as supercontinents breakup and then the continental fragments collide, closing the ocean that once existed between. The present collision of the Indian subcontinent with the Eurasian plate is a current example of a place where plate movements have closed part of an ocean that formerly lay between large land masses.

With the current spreading of the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge the Atlantic Ocean is growing wider while the vast Pacific is slowly shrinking as the two American continents move westward, and also the Australian plate is moving northward. If these crustal motions continue eventually the mighty Pacific will be closed. An episode of of How the Earth Was Made showed a projection Australia of Australia colliding with North America. However, I've also seen predictions that somehow the explanation of the Atlantic will be reversed and North America will once again connect with north Africa.

So this leads me to the question: Which of the Earth's oceans will close next?

[Ann]

I have no idea which ocean will close first, but a couple of years ago I saw a fantastic BBC documentary about the Earth's continents and tectonic plates. According to this documentary, the collision of two continental plates can lead to simply ginormous earthquakes and tsunamis. Similarly, the violent "pulling apart" of a land mass can also cause huge upheavals.

Click to view full size image

Antarctica and Australia. Source:
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-us/a ... ic-program

Click to view full size image

Australia and Indonesia. Source:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/undersea-li ... ble-78585/

According to the BBC documentary, Australia and Antarctica used to be one landmass, and fossilised remnants of a tree indigenous to Australia can still be found in the ice of Antarctica.

Ever since Australia broke away from Antarctica, it has been moving north at a good clip. In the not-too-distant future, it is going to crash into Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

I don't have any Idea! I think the Pacific may be still stretching apart!

[rstevenson]

There seems to be lots of animations of continental drift up to today on the web and on Youtube, though with what level of expertise they were prepared I cannot tell. Some of them project into the future as well.

Rob

[orin stepanek]

There seems to be lots of animations of continental drift up to today on the web and on Youtube, though with what level of expertise they were prepared I cannot tell. Some of them project into the future as well.

Rob

So according to those YouTube it's the Atlantic that is getting stretched!

[BDanielMayfield]

Thanks for the responses. Of course, no one can know for sure, since present movements can change. I just thought it might be an interesting topic.

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[orin stepanek]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Thaqns Art; I really liked the video!