The study indicates that the disappearance of the Atlantic Ocean will begin from the Strait of Gibraltar. There are two Portuguese geologists involved – Observador

A scientific study released on Friday with Portuguese participation, based on a computer model, indicates that the Atlantic Ocean will begin to close or “die” within 20 million years from the Strait of Gibraltar.

The study, published this week in the specialized journal Geology, involved the collaboration of geologists João Duarte and Felipe Rosas, from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, who released the results of the work on Friday in a statement.

Periodically, throughout Earth's history, the oceans “die”, that is, they close in and the continents fuse together to form a supercontinent.

200 million years ago, when dinosaurs inhabited the Earth, all the continents were united into a supercontinent, Pangea, with South America connected to Africa.

The Atlantic Ocean was born when Pangea split, due to tectonic activity, about 180 million years ago.

In 2016, João Duarte and Felipe Rosas published a study that recognized as a possible scenario the formation of a new supercontinent within 300 million years, as a result of the simultaneous closure of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The new supercontinent, which they named Eurekawill be formed in essence by Australia ('Au') and America ('Rich'), which will become linked.

In the new study, released on Friday, Portuguese geologists and researchers from the German University Johannes Gutenberg indicate that the Atlantic Ocean will begin to close within 20 million years from the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is necessary to close oceans such as the Atlantic Configuration inside it again Subduction zones – Places where tectonic plates meet and sink into each other.

Using a three-dimensional computational model, João Duarte, Felipe Rosas and the rest of the science team see that the subduction zone in the Strait of Gibraltar region, which few scientists assume is active due to its slow activity, “will spread towards the interior of the Atlantic Ocean and will contribute to the formation of a subduction system in This ocean”, giving rise to the “Atlantic Ring of Fire”, similar to the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of ​​strong volcanic and seismic activity.

In the Atlantic Ocean There are already two fully developed subduction zonesBut they invaded the ocean “several million years ago”: the Scottish Arc near Antarctica, and the Lesser Antilles Arc in the Caribbean.