World Information
By Melissa Koenig
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March 20, 2024, 1:21 p.m. ET
The Atlantic Ocean could “quickly” be swallowed up by an unlimited chain of colliding tectonic plates that has been ominously dubbed the “Ring of Hearth,” scientists warn.
The tectonic plate beneath Africa has been sliding under the one beneath Eurasia for about 30 million years, geologists from the College of Lisbon in Portugal famous in a current examine printed within the “Geology” journal.
Because it continues this downward pattern, the so-called Gibraltar Trench — positioned beneath the 10-mile-long Gibraltar Strait that separates Spain and Morocco — will broaden westward, forcing continents to maneuver nearer and nearer, till the Atlantic Ocean is absolutely gone, the scientists discovered.
Scientists out of the College of Portugal have warned that the Atlantic Ocean could also be swallowed up by tectonic plates. NOAA
The method could have even already begun, regardless of different scientists’ claims that the ditch is inactive.
“We now have good motive to assume that the Atlantic is beginning to shut,” lead scientist, Professor João Duarte, informed the Day by day Mail.
He and his colleagues got down to examine the long-term motion of the Gibraltar Trench, which Duarte referred to as an “invaluable alternative” to watch how the Africa Plate is shifting beneath the Eurasia Plate “in its early levels when it’s simply taking place,” he stated in an announcement.
The workforce created a pc mannequin to trace the modifications to the ditch because it fashioned within the Oligocene epoch between 34 million to 23 million years in the past.
About 30 million years in the past, the Gibraltar Trench fashioned when the tectonic plate beneath Africa started sliding under the one beneath Eurasia. Getty Photographs
They discovered that the plate subduction just isn’t as dormant as geologists had believed, however has as a substitute simply moved at a gradual charge of velocity over the previous 5 million years.
However over the following 20 million years — which they stated is “quickly” in geological phrases — the ditch might quadruple in measurement.
It’s at the moment believed to be about 125 miles lengthy, however might attain as much as 500 miles in size, the scientists stated.
Geologists had thought the African plate had stopped sliding, however the researchers discovered that it was simply shifting at a gradual charge of velocity. Andrea Danti/Shutterstock
The growth would then set off a sequence response, forming a brand new Atlantic subduction zone referred to as the “Ring of Hearth,” just like the one which fashioned within the Pacific Ocean.
Because the plates proceed to maneuver, the ocean ground will sink and the continents shall be pulled collectively, the examine discovered.
“Oceans appear everlasting to our lifespan, however they don’t seem to be right here for lengthy: they’re born, develop and sooner or later shut,” the researchers stated in a press launch asserting their findings.
Throughout this time, there may additionally be extra earthquakes just like the one which hit Lisbon in 1775.
The historic quake had an estimated magnitude of seven.7 on the Richter scale and killed almost 12,000 — almost destroying the Portuguese capital and its surrounding areas within the course of.
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