Why Should Continental Drift Matter to Me?

One of the more difficult ideas for people of all ages to comprehend is the immensity of time over which the Earth has formed and evolved. While most people have some sense that Biology has an evolving history, the physical Earth has one, too, and they are inextricably linked together.

Scientists think they have a good understanding of how the plates have moved since Pangaea broke up, but the motion is less clear in the time before Pangaea. Oceanic crust has an average age of only 55 million years (in geological terms, quite young). It is totally recycled into the Earth's interior every 150 million years or so. On the other hand, the age of continental crust averages about 2.3 BILLION years, with the oldest known rocks dating back 3.96 billion years (old by anyone's standard).

Some scientists studying these rocks suspect that the Earth has had several supercontinents throughout time. These supercontinents all went through a cycle similar to pangaea's. Perhaps 200 million years in the future, people in America won't need to cross the Pacific Ocean to reach Asia.

What can scientists predict about some of the features of the Earth existing today? Quite a lot. The Atlantic Ocean will continue to expand, while the Pacific Ocean (originaly Panthalassa Ocean) will shrink. Eventually, the Mediterranean Sea (remnant from the Tethys Sea) will disappear, contecting Africa with Europe. India will continue to push into the southern Asian continent, pushing the Himalayas higher. Meanwhile the city of Los Angles will continue its journey north to join with the city of San Francisco. This will take serveral million years to occur. Maybe in another 200 million years there will be no need for a transoceanic trip from America to Asia.

Let's all stick around to find out, okay?

Updated: January 22, 2003
 Diagram of plate movement off the California coast.
Residents of warm southern California are moving to Alaska whether they like it or not. Scientists, using the theory of plate tectonics, say that southern California is moving north and will collide with Alaska in approximately 150 million years.

Find out about Continental drift.