Novopangaea or Novopangea (
Greco-
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "New
Pangaea") is a possible future
supercontinent postulated by Roy Livermore in the late 1990s. It assumes closure of the
Pacific,
[Wilkins, Alasdair.]
A Geological History of Supercontinents on Planet Earth
at ''io9''. 27 Jan 2011. Accessed 22 July 2014. docking of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
with
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
, and northward motion of
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
.
Alternative scenarios
Paleogeologist
Historical geology or palaeogeology is a discipline that uses the principles and methods of geology to reconstruct the geological history of Earth. Historical geology examines the vastness of geologic time, measured in billions of years, and inve ...
Ronald Blakey
Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form of ...
has described the next 15 to 100 million years of tectonic development as fairly settled and predictable
[Manaugh, Geoff & al]
"What Did the Continents Look Like Millions of Years Ago?"
in ''The Atlantic'' online. 23 Sept 2013. Accessed 22 July 2014. but no supercontinent will form in that time frame. Beyond that, he cautions that the geologic record is full of unexpected shifts in tectonic activity that make further projections "very, very speculative".
[ In addition to Novopangaea, two other hypothetical supercontinents—"]Amasia Amasia may refer to the following places:
* Amasya, a city in Northern Turkey
** Amasya Province, which contains the city
** Amasea (titular see), the former Metropolitan Archbishopric with see there, now a Latin Catholic titular see
* Amasia, Sh ...
" and Christopher Scotese
Christopher R. Scotese (born 4 May 1953) is an American geologist and paleogeographer. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985. He is the creator of the Paleomap Project, which aims to map Earth over the last billion years, ...
's "Pangaea Ultima
Pangaea Proxima (also called Pangaea Ultima, Neopangaea, and Pangaea II) is a possible future supercontinent configuration. Consistent with the supercontinent cycle, Pangaea Proxima could occur within the next 200 million years. This potential co ...
"—were illustrated in an October 2007 ''New Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...
'' article.
References
Further reading
* Nield, Ted, ''Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet,'' Harvard University Press, 2009,
* Livermore, Roy ''The Tectonic Plates are Moving,'' Oxford University Press, 2018
{{Continents of Earth
Future supercontinents