1 billion years of movement of continents in 40 seconds
61 billion years of movement of continents in 40 seconds
Researchers studied the 1 billion-year movement of Earth's tectonic plates. As a result of the work done, a 40-second video was created. 1 billion years of movement can be followed in this video. How the continents were formed and shifted was revealed.
Tectonic plates are irregularly shaped and large-scale plates of solid rock that can range in size from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers.
Heat from radioactive processes inside the planet causes the plates to shift. These movements create basins that will later become oceans. Tectonic plates are important as they also determine the chemical makeup of the Earth's surface.
Michael Tetley, one of the scientists involved in the research. He says tracking how tectonic plates change over time is crucial to understanding how the Earth works.
“This is how we see biological evolution, for example, but also climatic evolution,” Tetley explains of the importance of the study.
Researcher Tetley said, "Everything that depends on tectonics. So understanding this fundamental level process is extremely important for science."
The simulation of a billion years of motion was squeezed into 40 seconds. You can see how the world has changed over millions of years.
Tetley said, "Earth is incredibly dynamic. Although on the human time scale, things move in centimeters per year … continents were everywhere in time. Places like Antarctica, which we see today as a cold, icy, uninhabitable place, were actually once at the equator. It was a very nice vacation spot," he said.