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Will all land merge into one large land mass
With all the tiptonic plates moving will this eventualy make Earth look different in 10,000 years time
11 Answers
- olin228Lv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
You have two questions. Will all land masses merge at some time in the future, perhaps. It may happen again in a very long time. There were several epochs in the past where most of the earth's land was consolidated into one or two super continents. This requires millions of years of tectonic movement, not thousands, however.
Will a map or satellite photo of the earth look different in 10,000 years, undoubtedly but not much different. The outlines of the continents will be nearly the same, and they will be in almost exactly their present positions. They move at the rate of inches per century, after all. The major differences will result from changes in sea level, currently sea levels are rising, and if global warming's worst case scenario becomes true, sea level will rise hundreds of feet. It is also possible that a new ice age will start and cover much of the northern part of the northern hemisphere with ice. Those are processes on the scale of 10,000 years. It will thus be the edges of the continents what will look different on a map, not their positions.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
yes, all the land will merge into 1 large mass. But only for a long long time. But yes in 10,000 years time the earth will look very different. Australia is bearing ever so slightly east all da time. India used to be an island aswell before it joined.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
10,000 years genuinely it will probably not look at all different. That depends on the rate of global warming as if the sea levels rise at current high rates places like Tuvalu and low level atolls will disappear under the sea and the Earth will look very different in these areas. I don't think 10,000 years in tectonic plates is long enough for a visible difference to be seen.
- unitedcats2004Lv 71 decade ago
Several people have pretty much nailed this, but what the heck:
Yes, the current theory is that there is a "supercontinent cycle" that makes the continents combine and split apart every 300-500 million years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent_cycle
The last one was Pangea, formed about 300 million years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea
In other words, yes, they have done it many times before so there is every reason to believe they will recombine again
As for the difference in ten thousand years, no, tectonic movements are very slow and take millions of years to see.
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- 55SpudLv 51 decade ago
First of all it's "tectonic" plates and earth will probably look different in the future. 10,000 years? That's not much time in geologic time, not enough for all the pieces to rejoin.
- fritya56Lv 61 decade ago
it will look different but 10,000 years is not a long time in tectonic terms , some plates are moving apart , some are moving towards each other . man might not be here then so don't worry .
- Anonymous1 decade ago
the tiptonic plates will be tip top in 10,000,000 years time!
- 1 decade ago
all land masses were once connected together and due to tectonic activity have got seperated and gaps created have been filled with water i.e. seas and oceans. now these land masses cannot come together