Scientists Claim the Pacific Ocean Will Disappear Merging America and Asia to Form a Supercontinent Called Amasia

Photo by USGS on Unsplash

According to scientists, the Pacific Ocean is closing on itself, and as a result, a supercontinent called Amasia will be formed. The process has already begun as scientists have calculated and concluded that the Pacific Ocean is currently shrinking at the slow rate of around one inch annually, a rate they say is consistent but gradual.

Scientists predict Amasia will be formed when the tectonic plates of the Americas get pushed westwards in about 300 million years’ time. Earth’s landmasses will then come together with the Americas and Asia and collide to form the new supercontinent that we now know will be called Amasia.

The scientists from Australia’s Curtin University were able to calculate and predict the monumental event that will take place millions of years in the future using supercomputer simulations based on past and present realistic plate and mantle parameters.

Earth scientist and lead author of the research, Chuan Huang explaining the science of how Amasia will be formed, said, “Over the past two billion years, earth’s continents have collided together to form a supercontinent every 600 million years, known as the supercontinent cycle. By simulating how the earth’s tectonic plates are expected to evolve using a supercomputer, we were able to show that in less than 300 million years’ time, it is likely to be the Pacific Ocean that will close, allowing for the formation of Amasia, debunking some previous scientific theories.”

How Amasia supercontinent will be formed

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean, with an estimated 63.8 million square miles and an average depth of 13,000 feet. Today, the Pacific Ocean makes up about 28% of the earth’s surface and is home to the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest oceanic trench. Nevertheless, while scientists do not dispute the shrinking of the pacific, other estimates put the Pacific’s shrinking at 0.19 square miles.

Scientists studying the Pacific Ocean have been making baffling discoveries in recent years. In 2020, American and Chinese scientists identified an old piece that was a fragment of the Pacific Ocean that extended hundreds of miles underneath China. The scientists said it was the ancient remains of the Pacific Ocean’s long-ago seabed.

However, computer simulations have also proved to be an essential tool in making novel discoveries and predictions. Because of simulations rendered by supercomputers, scientists can now answer questions humanity has been struggling with. For example, thanks to computer simulations, we now know our planet’s moon could have been formed in just a few hours due to an explosive impact that scientists say tore a chunk off the earth and hurled it to space.

Although the predicted supercontinent (Amasia) will come after the Pacific ocean ceases, it wouldn’t be the first time earth has undergone such a transformation. For instance, 200–300 million years ago, we had the Panthalassa super ocean, the largest ocean ever in our planet’s history.