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| A new supercontinent model: Aurica; Joao Duarte's new hypothesis | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 13 2017, 08:05 PM (709 Views) | |
| Nyarlathotep | Oct 13 2017, 08:05 PM Post #1 |
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The Creeping Chaos
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I'm sure most of you are familiar with the supercontinent ideas of Novopangaea, Pangea Proxima/Ultima and Amasia, respectively coined by Mark Behn, Christopher Scotese and Ross Mitchell. The former is a simple extrapolation of modern plate tectonics, with continents such as South America rotating clockwise to sandwich in Australia and (east) Antarctica, while Africa rotates counterclockwise, taking Europe with it, resulting in a great equatorial landmass opposite to the old Pangaea. This is the simplest model, though it runs into issues such as calculations that it would destroy all the major subduction zones around it, shutting down plate tectonics for millions of years. Portrayed in the Future is Wild. The middle is Scotese' hypothesis, where the minor subduction zones in the Antilles and Scotia grow till they cancel out the mid-Atlantic and reverse its growth, along with repulsion from the subduction of the Pacific plate, thus resulting in a supercontinent not too different to the old one. North America collides with Central Africa, while Souh America's southern point touches Indonesia, thus cutting off the Indian Ocean to a lake. This makes a much more unpredictable and seemingly plausible scenario, without the issue of being surrounded by 400+ million year old ocean crust. Nevertheless, it suffers in the problem that Atlantic ridges are already subduction, thus resulting in a paradox between two oceans that both seem to either expand or shrink. The latter is the scenario of Amasia, commonly portrayed as shown herein 2007 as a simple variation of Novopangaea. However, Ross Mitchell signicantly revised the theory, arguing instead that supercontinents tend to move approximately ninety degrees from the previous one, based on magnetic crystals. He thus came to the hypothesis that due to Scotia being less active than Antilles, the Atlantic would expand further at the south, meaning the land would gravitate northward, shutting off the North Pole, and probably excluding Antarctica. In his scenario, Africa continues northward as with Proxima, while North America turns counterclockwise, as South America fused with it along its west coast. The result is a glacial northern supercontinent, opposite to the ancient Godwana. These scenarios have been seen in modified versions in nearly all of spec projects in the distant future, even in modified forms. Surely there has to be something different, right? Enter Aurica. In Duarte's hypothesis, the Atlantic subduction and reverse of its expansion will not prevent the Pacific shrinking, but run alongside it, as a new fault line forms in the middle of Eurasia, ripping the Himalayas and Urals apart. The west of Asia goes with Europe and Africa, while the east collided with Oceania and later Antarctica, eventually closing both the Atlantic and the Pacific, resulting in a completely novel continental layout. ![]() A direct comparison between the four models, including the updated Amasia model (2012). Done by Newscientist 14th October 2017. Thoughts on this? |
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| Hybrid | Oct 13 2017, 08:18 PM Post #2 |
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May Specula Grant you Bountiful Spec!
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A higher resolution picture of the transition between modern continents and Aurica. Spoiler: click to toggle
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If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight! "To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet ノ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ヽ
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| Yiqi15 | Oct 13 2017, 08:24 PM Post #3 |
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Prime Specimen
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I just realised now how similar most supercontinents in most projects are, even Dragonthunders' does seem to follow the second option. What book is the last image from? |
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Current/Completed Projects - After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project. - A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually. Future Projects - XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy. - The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic. - Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock - Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making Potential Projects - Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts - Zoochat - Fandom | |
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| Nyarlathotep | Oct 14 2017, 08:07 AM Post #4 |
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The Creeping Chaos
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New scientist magaZine from this week. What spec potential could this have? |
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| Dragonthunders | Oct 14 2017, 11:20 AM Post #5 |
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The ethereal archosaur in blue
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I see it quite broad, from causing a minor mass extinction by the possible increase of volcanic activity while the continent split, the creation of two new zoogeographic zones and many new variations in the climate. It is interesting that the possibility of the separation of the Eurasian continent has been included in a model of future continental drift creating another supercontinent. I am curious, there is no mention of what would causes it? Something like the Baikal rift zone? |
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Projects "Active" projects The Future is Far Welcome to the next chapters of the evolution of life on earth, travel the across the earth on a journey that goes beyond the limits, a billion years of future history in the making. The SE giants project Wonder what is the big of the big on speculative evolution? no problem, here is the answer Coming one day Age of Mankind Humanity fate and its possible finals. The Long Cosmic Journey The history outside our world. The alternative paths The multiverse, the final frontier... Holocene park: Welcome to the biggest adventure of the last 215 million years, where the age of mammals comes to life again! Cambrian mars: An interesting experiment on an unprecedented scale, the life of a particular and important period in the history of our planet, the cambric life, has been transported to a terraformed and habitable mars in an alternative past. Two different paths, two different worlds, but same life and same weirdness. My deviantart | |
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| CaledonianWarrior96 | Oct 14 2017, 06:11 PM Post #6 |
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An Awesome Reptile
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The Baikal would make sense. I actually thought that at some point two landmasses would break off from East Asia due to the tectonic activity I read about it. Not sure how true that would be but this split in Asia looks interesting and gives new thought |
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Come check out and subscribe to my projects on the following subforums; Future Planet (V.2): the Future Evolution of Life on Earth (Evolutionary Continuum) The Meuse Legacy: An Alternative Outcome of the Mosasaur (Alternative Evolution) Terra Cascus: The Last Refuge of the Dinosaurs (Alternative Evolution) - Official Project - Foundation The Beryoni Galaxy: The Biologically Rich and Politically Complex State of our Galaxy (Habitational Zone) - Beryoni Critique Thread (formerly: Aliens of Beryoni) The Ecology of Skull Island: An Open Project for the Home of King Kong (Alternative Universe) The Ecology of Wakanda: An Open Project for the Home of Marvel's Black Panther (Alternative Universe) (Click bold titles to go to page. To subscribe click on a project, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "track topic" on the bottom right corner) And now, for something completely different
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