Plate tectonic rest

2008/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia

Plate tectonics, a geological process that forms terrestrial continents, saws and ocean basins, may be a process that gets underway and remains. Researchers from Carnegie have come to this conclusion. In fact, they have claimed that there has probably been at least one stop in the history of the planet and that it can happen again.

The alleged stop occurred between 30 and 50 million years ago, when India and Africa collided with Eurasia. Then the ocean basin called Tethys disappeared. This basin was a subduction zone, one of the areas in which the land surface is buried.

Researchers say that within 350 million years there may be another stop when America meets Eurasia. Most current subduction zones in the Pacific will then disappear.

This would have a great influence on the earth's climate and therefore on life. Without subduction zones there would be no volcanoes and volcanoes are one of the most important heat loss pathways on Earth.