The tectonic plates that cover Earth like a jigsaw puzzle move about as fast as our fingernails grow, but over the course of a billion years that’s enough to travel across the entire planet – as a fascinating video reveals.
Scientists in 2021 created one of the most detailed models of tectonic plates movements. They compressed 1 billion years worth of movement into a short video clip of 40 seconds. This allows us to see how these huge slabs of rock have interacted over the course of time.
The plates’ movement has an impact on climate, tidal and animal patterns, evolution, volcanic activity, metal production, and many other aspects of the planet. They are more than a cover for the planet.
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Michael Tetley, geoscientist at the University of Sydney explained that “for the first time, a complete model oftectonics was built including all the boundaries.” EuronewsIn 2021.
“On a human scale, things move in centimeters per annum, but as you can see from this animation, the continents have always been there in time. Although we think of Antarctica as an inhospitable, cold and icy place, it was once a beautiful holiday destination at the Equator.
The moving and sliding of the plates is quite a sight if you check out the video – land masses that are near neighbors become distant cousins and vice versa, and you might be surprised at just how recently it was that the countries and continents settled into the positions that we know today.
If scientists are to predict how habitable planet Earth will be in the future, it is essential to understand these patterns.
Plate movement is estimated through the study of the geological record – the magnetism that provides data on substrates’ historic positions in respect to Earth’s spin axis and the types of material locked in rock samples that help match the pieces of past geological plate puzzles together.
This team worked hard to select and combine the best models available. They looked at both the movements and interactions along the boundaries of plates.
“Planet Earth has an incredibly dynamic surface made up of plates that continuously jostle one another in a way that is unique among the known rock planets.” Sabin Zahirovic, geoscientistThe University of Sydney.
These plates move at the speed of fingernails growing, but when they are condensed to 40 seconds, a beautiful dance emerges. Oceans are open and closed, continents disperse, and supercontinents recombine periodically to form.
As scientists dig deeper into the past, it becomes more difficult to calculate how plates moved in the present. NeoproterozoicTo CambrianThese eras (1,000 to 525 million years ago) were particularly carefully charted to match our more recent records.
There are still questions about the design of these plates. First formedThis is how and when it happens formation happened, but every new data point helps us to understand the ancient history of Earth – even accounting for Missing platesSome models.
The scientists admit that their work lacks some finer detail – stretched as it is across the entire planet and a billion years – but they’re hoping that it can act as a useful resource and foundation for the future study of these movements and the impact they have on everything else on the planet.
“Our team has developed a completely new model of Earth’s evolution over the past billion years.” said geoscientist Dietmar MüllerFrom the University of Sydney
“Our planet is unique because it hosts life. However, this is possible because geological processes such as plate tectonics provide a planetary support system for life.
The research was published in Earth-Science Reviews.
A previous version of this article appeared in February 2021.
