According to a new study led by Curtin University in Australia, when the Pacific disappears in 300 million years, the next supercontinent in the world will form.
Continental and marine rocks form the crust or lithosphere, a thin crust located in thousands of kilometers of lava , called the mantle.
The Earth continent moves very slowly in the mantle. Australia plate is one of the faster moving plates, moving northward at a rate of about 7 cm per year.
Occasionally, the continent will collide, causing the mountain range to rise - just like Himalayas , it was formed when Indian subcontinent violently hit Asia about 40 to 50 million years ago. Occasionally, they all collide together to form a huge supercontinent.
Using a supercomputer, Perth Curtin’s geologists were able to simulate the formation of supercontinents. Their results show that the Earth's cooling over billions of years has resulted in reduced thickness and strength of plates beneath the ocean. Therefore, "young" oceans such as the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean are more resistant to continental drift than the more worn Pacific Ocean.
