Jaw-Dropping Video Shows Earth’s Massive Changes Over The Years
The video, based on the work of Xianzhi Cao from the Ocean University in China and others, uses information from inside the rocks of Earth’s surface, while reconstructing the plate tectonics of the planet over the last 1.8 billion years. The team says it is the first time Earth’s geological record has been used in this manner, enabling them to “make an attempt at mapping the planet over the last 40% of its history.”
The map begins of Earth as known now. As the motion of the continents begins, India rapidly moves south, followed by parts of Southeast Asia as the past continent of Gondwana starts to form in the Southern Hemisphere. At around 200 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs. Gondwana was linked with North America, Europe, and northern Asia to form a supercontinent called Pangaea.
As the map continues to shift through time, Pangaea and Gondwana were seen forming from older plate collisions. As time continues to roll back, another supercontinent begins to appear called Rondinia. This supercontinent was formed by the break-up of an even older supercontinent called Nuna, at around 1.35 billion years in the past.
Scientists believe it is important to study Earth in this way, because the planet is unique for having plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is a theory explaining the structure of the Earth’s crust and many associated phenomena resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates which move very slowly over the underlying mantle.
Outside of causing earthquakes and volcano eruptions, plate tectonics also push up rocks from deep within the Earth into the heights of mountain ranges. This enables elements far underground to erode from the rocks and then end up washing into rivers and oceans. Among the elements is phosphorus, which enables the formation of DNA molecules, or the building blocks for life.
The team behind the data and journey back through Earth’s ever changing landscape note modelling Earth is essential if they are to understand how nutrients became available to power evolution. They added the first evidence for complex cells with nuclei, such as all animal and plant cells, dates back to 1.65 billion years ago. It is also around the same time in history the supercontinent Nuna began to form, possibly providing the elements to power complex cell evolution.
The team remarked that the first attempt to map the last 1.8 billion years of Earth’s history is “a leap forward in the scientific grand challenge to map our world.” However, they add, it's merely the first attempt. Considerable improvement to the model is expected in the coming years.
