actors NBC La Brea (Now streaming on the peacock) were inadvertently dragged into an ancient world when they fell through time travel into the past, not unlike our own. For everyone in modern Los Angeles, a significant portion of the city has become unlivable. It’s a minor problem in the grand scheme of things. According to a recent study, scientists estimate that in the real world, about 92% of landmasses will become uninhabitable in the near future. Published in the magazine Natural Earth Sciences. Fortunately, not for another 250 million years.
We have a good handle on how the continents moved in the past, how they move now, and how they might move in the future. By running those models forward, scientists predict that we are in the midst of a supercontinent cycle. The last supercontinent, Pangea, broke up about 200 million years ago, and the next would come together a quarter of a billion years later. When that happens, the world will change so dramatically that it could spell the end for all mammals.
When the next supercontinent comes together, it will be bad for mammals
In the next quarter, Africa and Eurasia are predicted to converge as they move toward the Americas. The Atlantic Ocean would be swallowed up until the continental plates converged, eventually breaking the African-Eurasian continent and the Americas into a large, irregular mass centered around the equator. Meanwhile, Australia becomes truly landlocked as it turns south Connects to Antarctica.
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Importantly, this is only one interpretation of the tectonic data. Other models suggest that the next supercontinent may form closer to one of the poles, changing the final outcome. Regardless of where Pangea Ultima formed, some of the geological and environmental consequences are the same.
As landmasses coalesce, the planet will experience a significant uptick in volcanic activity, releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and pushing average global temperatures skyward. Also, being a supercontinent means that most of the landmass is landlocked far from any major bodies of water, resulting in large areas of arid desert.
Large areas of Pangea Ultima have been estimated to experience temperatures in excess of 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and to be uninhabitable for all but the most specialized mammals. In worst-case models, temperatures are so high that only 8% of the land area is habitable for mammals, down from 66% today.
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It’s bad for our side of the family tree, but not great for most lives. Almost all species of plants and animals were pushed to polar or coastal regions to beat the heat or were forced to adapt to increasingly harsh conditions in the interior of Pangea Ultima.
Of course, the planet has undergone such periods in the past and life has made it out alive, if not unscathed. The next supercontinent is also likely to have life. It doesn’t have a particularly good time.
In contrast, the Time Portal Sinkhole isn’t all that bad. Catch La Brea Streaming now on Peacock!
„Oddany rozwiązywacz problemów. Przyjazny hipsterom praktykant bekonu. Miłośnik kawy. Nieuleczalny introwertyk. Student.