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Yale University, New Haven

February 10, 2012 by · Comments Off on Yale University, New Haven 

Yale University, New Haven, The Earth’s next supercontinent will form as North and South America fuse together and head for an eventual collision with Europe and Asia, U.S. scientists say.

Researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., have proposed a theory that both the present-day Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea will disappear in 100 million years as the new supercontinent, dubbed Amasia, comes together as present-day continents move north.

“After those water bodies close, we’re on our way to the next supercontinent,” study co-author Ross N. Mitchell said in a Yale release Wednesday. “You’d have the Americas meeting Eurasia practically at the North Pole.”

The most recent supercontinent, Pangea, formed about 300 million years ago with Africa at its center, then began breaking apart into the seven continents of today with the birth of the Atlantic Ocean about 100 million years later.

In the model proposed by the Yale researchers, a newly formed mountain range will stitch North America and Asia together in the space currently occupied by the Arctic Ocean.

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