The Ring of Fireplace is without doubt one of the most iconic geological options on the earth.Stretching some 40,000 km alongside the Pacific Ocean, it’s house to 75 per cent of the Earth’s volcanoes and 90 per cent of its earthquakes, making it the planet’s best hotbed of violent seismic occasions.And but, this extraordinary space could also be confronted with some competitors within the dramatic tectonic stakes, with consultants warning that the Atlantic might ultimately start to shut and type a Ring of Fireplace of its personal.For an ocean such because the Atlantic to cease rising and shut itself off, new subduction zones should type inside it – areas the place one tectonic plate pushes one other down into the mantle under.The warmth from the mantle then melts this rock, remodeling it into magma. And the abundance of magma close to to the Earth’s floor creates the proper situations for volcanic exercise, as Nationwide Geographicnotes.The huge amount of volcanoes and earthquakes alongside the Pacific Ring of Fireplace exists largely due to the various subduction zones that lie alongside its path.A map of the Ring of Fireplace, together with outlines of the tectonic plates(Dimitrios Karamitros/iStock)And but, it takes lots for these boundaries to type. The zones require tectonic plates to bend and generally fracture – a tough course of to provoke given how sturdy and resilient the plates are, as tectonics skilled Dr João Duarte, of the College of Lisbon, has identified.In a brand new paper titled ‘Gibraltar subduction zone is invading the Atlantic’, Duarte and his workforce write: “The aged oceanic lithosphere (crust and mantle) is thick and powerful, making it immune to breaking and bending.”A doable resolution to this “paradox”, Duarte and his workforce suggest, would come up if subduction zones might migrate from an ocean on the finish of its life – just like the Mediterranean – to oceans on the peak of their geological life – just like the Atlantic.Now, he and his colleagues are actually arguing {that a} subduction zone, which presently lurks below the Strait of Gibraltar will ultimately “invade” the Atlantic.It will then result in the formation of a “subduction system” on this ocean – in different phrases, a line of volcanoes alongside the coastlines of Africa and Iberia, or an Atlantic Ring of Fireplace.What’s extra, this can all occur “quickly” from now, in geological phrases – at the very least 20 million years from now.The Gibraltar subduction zone – generally known as the Gibraltar Arc – was as soon as very energetic, but it surely has “considerably slowed down up to now hundreds of thousands of years,” in response to Duarte’s analysis, printed within the journal Geology.Nevertheless, by utilizing state-of-the-art geodynamic fashions, “that reproduce the evolution of the Western Mediterranean”, he and his colleagues have concluded that “the arc will propagate farther into the Atlantic after a interval of quiescence”.Gibraltar subduction zone is invading the Atlantic (prime view)youtu.beNevertheless, to type a Ring of Fireplace you want multiple subduction zone.Handily, there are two others on the opposite facet of the Atlantic: the Lesser Antilles within the Caribbean and the Scotia Arc, close to Antarctica.Nonetheless, these subductions shaped within the West Atlantic round 50 million years in the past and have been slowly shifting ever since, Duarte informed IFLScience. “For them to win over the opening of the Atlantic they must unfold, and ultimately drive the Mid-Atlantic ridge to subduct. This will likely take greater than 20 million years.”What excites him most in regards to the Gibraltar Arc is that, not like the Lesser Antilles and Scotia examples which invaded the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years in the past, Gibraltar remains to be within the “early levels’ of the method.”Subduction invasion is inherently a three-dimensional course of that requires superior modelling instruments and supercomputers that weren’t out there a couple of years in the past,” Duarte mentioned in an announcement.“We will now simulate the formation of the Gibraltar Arc with nice element and in addition the way it could evolve within the deep future.”May a hoop of fiery volcanoes someday type alongside the coastlines of Africa and Iberia?(iStock)He additionally famous that while the closing of the Atlantic would possibly indicate that the Pacific Ocean will open up even wider, he doesn’t view this as a possible final result.Fairly, “Every thing appears to recommend that the Pacific will shut,” Duarte informed IFLScience. “This was one thing that troubled me for some time… The answer is that one other ocean has to open, and that might be the Indian, and even an ocean that will cut up Africa and Eurasia.” He and his workforce imagine that the opening of the East African Rift, which can ultimately create a brand new continent, is perhaps the beginning of this, together with rifts inside Asia.Fortunately for us, not even Bryan Johnson is more likely to be round to see the fiery results of this ring formation, which implies that holidays on the Iberian and African coasts are nonetheless on the playing cards.Join our free Indy100 weekly newsletterHave your say in our information democracy. 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