The coming supercontinent
 |
Description
Book Introduction
“Understanding the Earth we stand on
“It is the most excellent way to understand ourselves.”
Until the early part of the last century, humanity knew very little about the interior of the Earth.
Then, seismology, the study of the Earth's interior through the vibrations caused by earthquakes, was born, and during World War II, geology entered a period of revolution in plate tectonics when the actual shape of the Earth under the sea was captured by geologists who participated in the creation of underwater maps aboard submarines.
Plate tectonics is a geological theory that explains continental drift and is a scientific theory accepted as common sense by most people today.
These days, we often say that the Earth is made up of 'five oceans and six continents (seven continents if you include Antarctica)', but if we go back in time 200 to 300 million years, the story changes.
In the past, most of the Earth's continents were combined into a single plate called 'Pangaea'.
'Pangaea' is a name given by Alfred Wegener, a pioneer in plate tectonics, and means 'all lands'.
Surprisingly, 'Pangaea' is only the most recent version of a phenomenon called a 'supercontinent'.
Geologists have found that in the approximately 4.5 billion years since Earth's formation, at least two other supercontinents existed besides Pangaea: Rodinia and Columbia.
Geologists also predict that another supercontinent will form after Pangaea.
Of course, that was 200 million years later.
According to one computer model, when that happens, Lima, Peru, on the west coast of South America, and New York City, on the east coast of the United States, will collide.
In this way, the Earth's plate tectonics are a remarkable mechanism, powerful enough to pile one city on top of another and to send a continent down into the ocean depths to be recycled into the hot mantle.
"The Coming Supercontinent" is a popular earth science textbook written by a prominent American geologist. It provides a systematic and easy-to-understand overview of the next supercontinent, expected to form approximately 200 million years from the evidence of at least three supercontinents.
The book also places significant emphasis on the passion and attitude of scientists who struggle to uncover the mysteries of our planet, Earth, by making the continent, which moves at the rate of human fingernail growth in a year, an object of scientific inquiry.
Some might ask what the point is for humans, who will not even live to be 100 years old, to understand the changes that will occur on Earth in the next few hundred million years.
However, when we realize that thanks to the scientific collaboration and cooperation of the author and the many geologists featured in this book, the secrets of the land we live on have been gradually revealed, and that from this, we can devise ingenious solutions to the climate change crisis that threatens the survival of humanity, we will realize that the research results in the fields of geology and other earth sciences are not so far away from us.
“It is the most excellent way to understand ourselves.”
Until the early part of the last century, humanity knew very little about the interior of the Earth.
Then, seismology, the study of the Earth's interior through the vibrations caused by earthquakes, was born, and during World War II, geology entered a period of revolution in plate tectonics when the actual shape of the Earth under the sea was captured by geologists who participated in the creation of underwater maps aboard submarines.
Plate tectonics is a geological theory that explains continental drift and is a scientific theory accepted as common sense by most people today.
These days, we often say that the Earth is made up of 'five oceans and six continents (seven continents if you include Antarctica)', but if we go back in time 200 to 300 million years, the story changes.
In the past, most of the Earth's continents were combined into a single plate called 'Pangaea'.
'Pangaea' is a name given by Alfred Wegener, a pioneer in plate tectonics, and means 'all lands'.
Surprisingly, 'Pangaea' is only the most recent version of a phenomenon called a 'supercontinent'.
Geologists have found that in the approximately 4.5 billion years since Earth's formation, at least two other supercontinents existed besides Pangaea: Rodinia and Columbia.
Geologists also predict that another supercontinent will form after Pangaea.
Of course, that was 200 million years later.
According to one computer model, when that happens, Lima, Peru, on the west coast of South America, and New York City, on the east coast of the United States, will collide.
In this way, the Earth's plate tectonics are a remarkable mechanism, powerful enough to pile one city on top of another and to send a continent down into the ocean depths to be recycled into the hot mantle.
"The Coming Supercontinent" is a popular earth science textbook written by a prominent American geologist. It provides a systematic and easy-to-understand overview of the next supercontinent, expected to form approximately 200 million years from the evidence of at least three supercontinents.
The book also places significant emphasis on the passion and attitude of scientists who struggle to uncover the mysteries of our planet, Earth, by making the continent, which moves at the rate of human fingernail growth in a year, an object of scientific inquiry.
Some might ask what the point is for humans, who will not even live to be 100 years old, to understand the changes that will occur on Earth in the next few hundred million years.
However, when we realize that thanks to the scientific collaboration and cooperation of the author and the many geologists featured in this book, the secrets of the land we live on have been gradually revealed, and that from this, we can devise ingenious solutions to the climate change crisis that threatens the survival of humanity, we will realize that the research results in the fields of geology and other earth sciences are not so far away from us.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
ㆍRecommended article
ㆍPreface
ㆍHistory repeats itself
Pangea
ㆍRodinia
Columbia
ㆍUnknown Archean era
The coming supercontinent
Surviving in Amasia
ㆍThank you
ㆍNote
ㆍPreface
ㆍHistory repeats itself
Pangea
ㆍRodinia
Columbia
ㆍUnknown Archean era
The coming supercontinent
Surviving in Amasia
ㆍThank you
ㆍNote
Detailed image
Into the book
The plates are all interconnected, so if there is a change in the movement of one plate, all the plates must adjust.
30 million years ago, the Australian continent broke away from Antarctica and headed north across the Pacific Ocean, following its current path.
Before the bend formed, the Pacific plate was moving straight north, but after the bend formed as Australia separated from the western Pacific, the direction of movement of the Pacific plate changed to the northwest.
No plate moves alone; each plate interacts with its neighbors along their shared boundaries.
Plate tectonics is the dance of all the plates and the seven major continents they carry (or eight, depending on how you define a continent), along with dozens of smaller plates in between, forming a swarm.
--- p.24
Despite all the evidence Wegener had gathered about Pangaea and continental drift, it could not be elevated to the status of a scientific theory until a plausible physical mechanism for moving the continents was discovered.
Proving Pangaea had to wait until the discovery of plate tectonics.
The advent of submarines and the outbreak of World War II coincidentally spurred a revolution in plate tectonics.
Geologists who were involved in mapping the ocean floor to gain a navigational advantage and find shelters boarded a submarine and unexpectedly saw for the first time the true shape of the Earth hidden beneath the surface.
--- p.50
The tricky thing about studying the supercontinents that predated Pangaea is that many of the rules change.
Much of the most compelling evidence we used to reconstruct the continental arrangement of Pangaea is now unavailable.
The diagnostic fossils that Wegener used to prove the connection between the continents across the Atlantic are unavailable.
Because multicellular organisms were just beginning to evolve during the ancient Rodinian period.
Fossils preserved from the Rodinian period are often microscopic and mollusk-like, so they are not well preserved, difficult to find, and even when found, difficult to identify immediately.
--- p.110
Even after the ancient mountain range lost its rugged, rocky terrain to erosion and collapse, evidence of its existence is found in metamorphic rocks formed at high temperatures and depths.
Soon after Wegener's Pangaea hypothesis was confirmed by the plate tectonic revolution, geologists began to discover metamorphic rocks much older than Pangaea and to recognize that continental collisions had occurred at other times.
And the evidence spread widely, suggesting that a supercontinent existed long before Pangaea.
--- p.115
We need three cases to be convinced that a supercontinent 'circulation' actually exists.
If only Pangaea existed, it could have been a coincidence.
The two supercontinents (Pangaea and Rodinia) still belong to the realm of chance.
But if there are three supercontinents, it is science.
Therefore, for supercontinent circulation to exist, we must establish that not only Rodinia, the predecessor of Pangaea, but also Rodinia's predecessor, existed.
--- p.185
Geologic time is the way geologists divide time.
The history of the Earth spans thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, and even billions of years, so it is important to have a system for dividing time.
Of course, we could deal with time only in numbers, but that would be tedious and impractical.
It would be like counting the year as 365 days without dividing it into seasons, months, or weeks.
So Earth's history is divided into long time intervals that are gradually subdivided into shorter units.
And this is determined by the natural flow of events that occur on Earth.
Periods of little change on Earth are characterized by long time intervals, while periods of turbulent environmental and biological change are characterized by frequent time intervals.
In short, geologic time is a scale for measuring changes in the Earth.
--- p.193
We often forget that plate tectonics was developed to explain Earth's recent or present plate boundaries.
There is still debate about whether this theory applies to all eras of the Earth.
Geologists today support one of two philosophical approaches to the possibility of ancient plate tectonics.
First, there are supporters of the uniformitarian theory.
Let's recall the famous saying of geological pioneer Charles Lyell: "The present holds the key to the past."
The other is supporters of another scientific giant, Charles Darwin.
They apply evolutionary theory to geology, saying that past processes have evolved into present-day processes.
--- p.238~239
Plate tectonics are essential for forming supercontinents, but they are not sufficient.
As we have already discussed, the continental crust must have been sufficiently formed.
Because of these conditions, the existence of the Archean supercontinent was already doubtful.
To form a supercontinent, plate tectonics had to operate not just locally but globally.
While subduction may have occurred locally in ancient times, such limited tectonic activity also occurs on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
No one would argue that plate tectonics exists by observing local subduction on Europa.
--- p.246
Even among those who advocate opposing models of supercontinent circulation, there is little doubt that Australia will collide with Asia, much like the Indian subcontinent.
Long-term projections suggest that Australia will join the growing supercontinent of Eurasia somewhere between Japan and India in about 30 to 40 million years.
--- p.309
Currently, Earth is the only celestial body in the solar system that experiences plate tectonics.
But this cannot last forever.
Even if we optimistically predict that plate tectonics will continue for several billion years, life on Earth will be in serious trouble long before our orbit leaves the habitable zone.
I can only imagine what challenges our way of life will face when another supercontinent forms, some 200 million years from now.
Of course, it's a very distant future, but it's much faster than billions of years ago.
The coming supercontinent will undoubtedly threaten the coastal port cities that have been the lifeblood of our civilization.
--- p.328
Another solution to combat some of the impacts of climate change is carbon capture and sequestration.
This is particularly important given that countries still in the process of industrializing are unlikely to abandon coal anytime soon.
Capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide are all methods taken from the plate tectonics commentary.
Subduction zones push hydrated oceanic plates back down into the mantle, where carbon dioxide, a volatile gas, settles with water in the turbulent pore spaces.
If the Earth can do it this way, why not try it too?
30 million years ago, the Australian continent broke away from Antarctica and headed north across the Pacific Ocean, following its current path.
Before the bend formed, the Pacific plate was moving straight north, but after the bend formed as Australia separated from the western Pacific, the direction of movement of the Pacific plate changed to the northwest.
No plate moves alone; each plate interacts with its neighbors along their shared boundaries.
Plate tectonics is the dance of all the plates and the seven major continents they carry (or eight, depending on how you define a continent), along with dozens of smaller plates in between, forming a swarm.
--- p.24
Despite all the evidence Wegener had gathered about Pangaea and continental drift, it could not be elevated to the status of a scientific theory until a plausible physical mechanism for moving the continents was discovered.
Proving Pangaea had to wait until the discovery of plate tectonics.
The advent of submarines and the outbreak of World War II coincidentally spurred a revolution in plate tectonics.
Geologists who were involved in mapping the ocean floor to gain a navigational advantage and find shelters boarded a submarine and unexpectedly saw for the first time the true shape of the Earth hidden beneath the surface.
--- p.50
The tricky thing about studying the supercontinents that predated Pangaea is that many of the rules change.
Much of the most compelling evidence we used to reconstruct the continental arrangement of Pangaea is now unavailable.
The diagnostic fossils that Wegener used to prove the connection between the continents across the Atlantic are unavailable.
Because multicellular organisms were just beginning to evolve during the ancient Rodinian period.
Fossils preserved from the Rodinian period are often microscopic and mollusk-like, so they are not well preserved, difficult to find, and even when found, difficult to identify immediately.
--- p.110
Even after the ancient mountain range lost its rugged, rocky terrain to erosion and collapse, evidence of its existence is found in metamorphic rocks formed at high temperatures and depths.
Soon after Wegener's Pangaea hypothesis was confirmed by the plate tectonic revolution, geologists began to discover metamorphic rocks much older than Pangaea and to recognize that continental collisions had occurred at other times.
And the evidence spread widely, suggesting that a supercontinent existed long before Pangaea.
--- p.115
We need three cases to be convinced that a supercontinent 'circulation' actually exists.
If only Pangaea existed, it could have been a coincidence.
The two supercontinents (Pangaea and Rodinia) still belong to the realm of chance.
But if there are three supercontinents, it is science.
Therefore, for supercontinent circulation to exist, we must establish that not only Rodinia, the predecessor of Pangaea, but also Rodinia's predecessor, existed.
--- p.185
Geologic time is the way geologists divide time.
The history of the Earth spans thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, and even billions of years, so it is important to have a system for dividing time.
Of course, we could deal with time only in numbers, but that would be tedious and impractical.
It would be like counting the year as 365 days without dividing it into seasons, months, or weeks.
So Earth's history is divided into long time intervals that are gradually subdivided into shorter units.
And this is determined by the natural flow of events that occur on Earth.
Periods of little change on Earth are characterized by long time intervals, while periods of turbulent environmental and biological change are characterized by frequent time intervals.
In short, geologic time is a scale for measuring changes in the Earth.
--- p.193
We often forget that plate tectonics was developed to explain Earth's recent or present plate boundaries.
There is still debate about whether this theory applies to all eras of the Earth.
Geologists today support one of two philosophical approaches to the possibility of ancient plate tectonics.
First, there are supporters of the uniformitarian theory.
Let's recall the famous saying of geological pioneer Charles Lyell: "The present holds the key to the past."
The other is supporters of another scientific giant, Charles Darwin.
They apply evolutionary theory to geology, saying that past processes have evolved into present-day processes.
--- p.238~239
Plate tectonics are essential for forming supercontinents, but they are not sufficient.
As we have already discussed, the continental crust must have been sufficiently formed.
Because of these conditions, the existence of the Archean supercontinent was already doubtful.
To form a supercontinent, plate tectonics had to operate not just locally but globally.
While subduction may have occurred locally in ancient times, such limited tectonic activity also occurs on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
No one would argue that plate tectonics exists by observing local subduction on Europa.
--- p.246
Even among those who advocate opposing models of supercontinent circulation, there is little doubt that Australia will collide with Asia, much like the Indian subcontinent.
Long-term projections suggest that Australia will join the growing supercontinent of Eurasia somewhere between Japan and India in about 30 to 40 million years.
--- p.309
Currently, Earth is the only celestial body in the solar system that experiences plate tectonics.
But this cannot last forever.
Even if we optimistically predict that plate tectonics will continue for several billion years, life on Earth will be in serious trouble long before our orbit leaves the habitable zone.
I can only imagine what challenges our way of life will face when another supercontinent forms, some 200 million years from now.
Of course, it's a very distant future, but it's much faster than billions of years ago.
The coming supercontinent will undoubtedly threaten the coastal port cities that have been the lifeblood of our civilization.
--- p.328
Another solution to combat some of the impacts of climate change is carbon capture and sequestration.
This is particularly important given that countries still in the process of industrializing are unlikely to abandon coal anytime soon.
Capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide are all methods taken from the plate tectonics commentary.
Subduction zones push hydrated oceanic plates back down into the mantle, where carbon dioxide, a volatile gas, settles with water in the turbulent pore spaces.
If the Earth can do it this way, why not try it too?
--- p.331
Publisher's Review
In an era of climate crisis that threatens the survival of humanity,
What we need is geological literacy!
In 2002, National Geographic published a research report titled "Geo-literacy."
Geographic literacy is the ability to understand the relationship between humans and nature and the society and culture to which one belongs. According to this report, geographic literacy is necessary for humanity to protect natural and cultural resources and defend itself from various crises.
Inspired by this, the author of "The Coming Supercontinent" argues that we humans are now in a time when "geological literacy" is more necessary than ever.
In a reality where climate change, such as global warming, threatens the survival of humanity, it is difficult to advance meaningful discussions on responding to climate change without an understanding of geology, which studies the physical structure and mechanisms of the entire Earth.
According to the author, human evolution is closely related to plate tectonics and climate change.
The deep lakes of the East African Rift Valley, the cradle of early human civilization, are the result of plate tectonic movement.
But when these lakes dried up due to extreme climate change that swept across the planet hundreds of millions of years ago, our ancestors were forced to change their ways and travel unimaginable distances to find habitable land.
If we delve into the origins of humanity's expansion beyond the African continent to other continents, we can say that it was due to the influence of plate tectonics that brought about changes in the Earth's environment.
In other words, to understand how Earth's climate change will impact human lifestyles today, we must begin by understanding plate tectonics, which, for example, provides a fundamental explanation for why polar ice caps exist.
“Before humans appeared, plate tectonics mainly controlled the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which was achieved through volcanic activity.
This type of volcanic activity occurs as the Earth's plates move.
So, if we truly understand how plate tectonics have alternated between greenhouse and icehouse climates in the past, we can understand the impact of our greenhouse gases and how we can mitigate warming.
This is the ultimate goal I hope to achieve with this book.
This is to convey to you the current status of plate tectonics.
The surface of the Earth will not change much over the course of our lifetimes.
But over billions of years of geologic time, these changes have been enormous.
“I hope that through this book, you will be able to properly recognize the existence of nature, which has been created by geological forces, from Mount Everest, which is 9,000 meters above sea level, to the Mariana Trench, which is 11,000 meters deep.” (Main text, pp. 16-17)
The history of plate tectonics, which changed the paradigm of the field of earth science
There has never been a book that explains things more clearly and easily!
Plate tectonics is a theory that explains the movement of continents and is a core theory of geology that logically explains all geological phenomena occurring on Earth.
Most scientists in this field accept plate tectonics as the established theory.
The theory of plate tectonics may seem like a theory far removed from our reality, but natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as rugged mountain ranges like Mount Everest, are actually the result of the Earth's plate tectonics.
As long as we live on Earth, humanity cannot escape the influence of plate tectonics.
The first idea of such significant plate movement was the concept of "continental drift" proposed by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and geologist.
Even in the early 20th century, when Wegener proposed the concept of 'moving continents,' the concept was not accepted by the general public, let alone geologists.
At the time, his theory of continental drift was unable to find a mechanism to explain why continents could move.
Wegener collected data from various sources to support his hypothesis.
For example, he not only noted how perfectly the coastlines of the two continents on either side of the Atlantic, South America and Africa, matched up, but he also found paleontological evidence in the fossil record by matching fossil patterns from fragments of adjacent and then separated continents.
Wegener crossed the boundaries of academic disciplines such as paleontology, geology, geophysics, geodesy, and meteorology, and collected vast amounts of evidence from various fields. In 1915, he proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that the now scattered continents were originally one large continent (the supercontinent Pangaea) and that they moved over time to reach the present.
However, despite the various pieces of evidence Wegener gathered about Pangaea and continental drift, his theory of continental drift could not be promoted to the status of a scientific theory until the physical mechanism that caused the continents to move was discovered.
The seeds of Wegener's ideas sprouted and gained momentum thanks to the research on the topography of the seabed conducted during World War II.
Thanks to the efforts of geologists who descended the seabed in submarines to create ocean maps, mankind was able to obtain detailed information about the topography of the ocean floor.
As a result, the seafloor spreading theory was established, which states that new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges, which are rising points of mantle convection, and old oceanic crust is subducted into the mantle and destroyed.
In addition, as the Earth's internal structure was revealed through seismic wave research, it led to the development of plate tectonics, the mechanism of continental movement.
This marked the beginning of the 'plate tectonic revolution' in the scientific community in the 1960s.
The essential essence of 'geology' from a promising American geologist!
“There have been at least three supercontinents in the history of the Earth.
“In the distant future, another new supercontinent will surely be created.”
"The Coming Supercontinent" is a fascinating look at how today's geologists, Wegener's descendants, are inheriting and developing the plate tectonic revolution.
One idea that this book particularly focuses on is the possibility that at least two other supercontinents existed before the supercontinent called Pangaea.
'Pangaea', 'Rodinia', and 'Columbia' are the names of supercontinents that are thought to have existed during the Earth's approximately 4.5 billion years of history.
In each chapter, the author, like a witty storyteller, explains the research and debates that have been conducted in academia to date surrounding the existence of these supercontinents and the process of migration from one supercontinent to the next.
Meanwhile, the latter part outlines the research that made the author a rising star in the field of geology and predicts a new supercontinent in the distant future.
In February 2012, the author published a research paper in Nature, the world's most prestigious academic journal in the field of natural science, which verified with data the hypothesis that "during the supercontinent cycle, there would have been a 90-degree shift from the previous supercontinent's roaming axis to the next supercontinent's roaming axis," causing a great stir in the academic world.
His research paper is recognized as such a significant discovery that Paul Hoffman, a professor at Harvard University and a leading figure in the world of geology, called it "the greatest advance in the field of supercontinent research in decades."
Based on his research, he predicts that in about 150 to 200 million years, present-day North America and South America will rotate so that their east and west coasts face each other, bringing New York City and Lima, Peru, into contact.
Also, the two American continents will collide with Asia in the Arctic.
Australia is also expected to join Eurasia.
Ross Mitchell names the supercontinent that will be formed through this series of processes 'Amasya'.
Our human species will eventually survive
Will we ever witness the next supercontinent?
So, will our species survive to witness the next supercontinent, Amasia? Understanding what the next supercontinent will look like is clearly nothing more than speculation.
This is because it is something that will not happen in our lifetime, or in the lifetime of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or even in the future, and therefore it is impossible to verify the hypothesis in the near future.
Nonetheless, it is important to examine the evolution of the Earth, which is taking place over a much longer period of time than the existence of individual humans, including the ever-changing appearance of the Earth at present.
Regardless of whether the hypothesis of the arrival of the next supercontinent is correct, the research results in the field of geology that formed the basis for deriving the hypothesis offer ideas for resolving the climate change crisis that humanity faces today.
Many of the geoengineering solutions humans have devised to reverse climate change, such as spraying sulfur particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet or growing trees and then burying them to capture carbon, mimic the mechanisms of plate tectonics.
In other words, solving climate change is consistent with adopting a plate tectonics-scale mindset and acting accordingly.
This is why we need to be geologically literate and view the world through a geological lens.
This book, which explains the latest earth science research findings in a language accessible to the general public, has another virtue besides conveying the core information of geology in a clear and accessible language.
It also points out the important point of ‘scientific attitude’.
Geology is the study of the Earth's composition, formation process, and past life forms, and is also called 'earth science'.
Reconstructing and uncovering the history of the Earth, estimated to be approximately 4.5 billion years old, is by no means a task that can be accomplished alone.
In particular, the core topic of this book, 'supercontinent research,' is a field that requires global cooperation.
In order to study the supercontinent, it is necessary to first study the rock and geological composition of each continent, and the people who know this best are the geologists of the respective countries.
The process of numerous scholars developing scientific methodology and collaborating to test a single hypothesis is purely moving to witness.
It is truly astonishing that humans, who live less than 100 years, devote their entire lives to studying a continent that moves at the speed of a human fingernail a year, and to predicting the principles of its movement and the changes it will bring.
If humanity survives until a new supercontinent is formed, it will likely be thanks to the knowledge we have accumulated through our sheer curiosity about the planet we live on and our thirst for truth.
“Science takes time.
This can be frustrating, but it can also be saving.
Science is now one vast, interconnected community, with small networks expanding to vast scales.
(…) Thank you for joining me on this time travel from the past to the future.
All is not lost yet, but we really need time.
“Only by looking toward the future can we find a way to become a part of it.” (Page 340)
What we need is geological literacy!
In 2002, National Geographic published a research report titled "Geo-literacy."
Geographic literacy is the ability to understand the relationship between humans and nature and the society and culture to which one belongs. According to this report, geographic literacy is necessary for humanity to protect natural and cultural resources and defend itself from various crises.
Inspired by this, the author of "The Coming Supercontinent" argues that we humans are now in a time when "geological literacy" is more necessary than ever.
In a reality where climate change, such as global warming, threatens the survival of humanity, it is difficult to advance meaningful discussions on responding to climate change without an understanding of geology, which studies the physical structure and mechanisms of the entire Earth.
According to the author, human evolution is closely related to plate tectonics and climate change.
The deep lakes of the East African Rift Valley, the cradle of early human civilization, are the result of plate tectonic movement.
But when these lakes dried up due to extreme climate change that swept across the planet hundreds of millions of years ago, our ancestors were forced to change their ways and travel unimaginable distances to find habitable land.
If we delve into the origins of humanity's expansion beyond the African continent to other continents, we can say that it was due to the influence of plate tectonics that brought about changes in the Earth's environment.
In other words, to understand how Earth's climate change will impact human lifestyles today, we must begin by understanding plate tectonics, which, for example, provides a fundamental explanation for why polar ice caps exist.
“Before humans appeared, plate tectonics mainly controlled the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which was achieved through volcanic activity.
This type of volcanic activity occurs as the Earth's plates move.
So, if we truly understand how plate tectonics have alternated between greenhouse and icehouse climates in the past, we can understand the impact of our greenhouse gases and how we can mitigate warming.
This is the ultimate goal I hope to achieve with this book.
This is to convey to you the current status of plate tectonics.
The surface of the Earth will not change much over the course of our lifetimes.
But over billions of years of geologic time, these changes have been enormous.
“I hope that through this book, you will be able to properly recognize the existence of nature, which has been created by geological forces, from Mount Everest, which is 9,000 meters above sea level, to the Mariana Trench, which is 11,000 meters deep.” (Main text, pp. 16-17)
The history of plate tectonics, which changed the paradigm of the field of earth science
There has never been a book that explains things more clearly and easily!
Plate tectonics is a theory that explains the movement of continents and is a core theory of geology that logically explains all geological phenomena occurring on Earth.
Most scientists in this field accept plate tectonics as the established theory.
The theory of plate tectonics may seem like a theory far removed from our reality, but natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as rugged mountain ranges like Mount Everest, are actually the result of the Earth's plate tectonics.
As long as we live on Earth, humanity cannot escape the influence of plate tectonics.
The first idea of such significant plate movement was the concept of "continental drift" proposed by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and geologist.
Even in the early 20th century, when Wegener proposed the concept of 'moving continents,' the concept was not accepted by the general public, let alone geologists.
At the time, his theory of continental drift was unable to find a mechanism to explain why continents could move.
Wegener collected data from various sources to support his hypothesis.
For example, he not only noted how perfectly the coastlines of the two continents on either side of the Atlantic, South America and Africa, matched up, but he also found paleontological evidence in the fossil record by matching fossil patterns from fragments of adjacent and then separated continents.
Wegener crossed the boundaries of academic disciplines such as paleontology, geology, geophysics, geodesy, and meteorology, and collected vast amounts of evidence from various fields. In 1915, he proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that the now scattered continents were originally one large continent (the supercontinent Pangaea) and that they moved over time to reach the present.
However, despite the various pieces of evidence Wegener gathered about Pangaea and continental drift, his theory of continental drift could not be promoted to the status of a scientific theory until the physical mechanism that caused the continents to move was discovered.
The seeds of Wegener's ideas sprouted and gained momentum thanks to the research on the topography of the seabed conducted during World War II.
Thanks to the efforts of geologists who descended the seabed in submarines to create ocean maps, mankind was able to obtain detailed information about the topography of the ocean floor.
As a result, the seafloor spreading theory was established, which states that new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges, which are rising points of mantle convection, and old oceanic crust is subducted into the mantle and destroyed.
In addition, as the Earth's internal structure was revealed through seismic wave research, it led to the development of plate tectonics, the mechanism of continental movement.
This marked the beginning of the 'plate tectonic revolution' in the scientific community in the 1960s.
The essential essence of 'geology' from a promising American geologist!
“There have been at least three supercontinents in the history of the Earth.
“In the distant future, another new supercontinent will surely be created.”
"The Coming Supercontinent" is a fascinating look at how today's geologists, Wegener's descendants, are inheriting and developing the plate tectonic revolution.
One idea that this book particularly focuses on is the possibility that at least two other supercontinents existed before the supercontinent called Pangaea.
'Pangaea', 'Rodinia', and 'Columbia' are the names of supercontinents that are thought to have existed during the Earth's approximately 4.5 billion years of history.
In each chapter, the author, like a witty storyteller, explains the research and debates that have been conducted in academia to date surrounding the existence of these supercontinents and the process of migration from one supercontinent to the next.
Meanwhile, the latter part outlines the research that made the author a rising star in the field of geology and predicts a new supercontinent in the distant future.
In February 2012, the author published a research paper in Nature, the world's most prestigious academic journal in the field of natural science, which verified with data the hypothesis that "during the supercontinent cycle, there would have been a 90-degree shift from the previous supercontinent's roaming axis to the next supercontinent's roaming axis," causing a great stir in the academic world.
His research paper is recognized as such a significant discovery that Paul Hoffman, a professor at Harvard University and a leading figure in the world of geology, called it "the greatest advance in the field of supercontinent research in decades."
Based on his research, he predicts that in about 150 to 200 million years, present-day North America and South America will rotate so that their east and west coasts face each other, bringing New York City and Lima, Peru, into contact.
Also, the two American continents will collide with Asia in the Arctic.
Australia is also expected to join Eurasia.
Ross Mitchell names the supercontinent that will be formed through this series of processes 'Amasya'.
Our human species will eventually survive
Will we ever witness the next supercontinent?
So, will our species survive to witness the next supercontinent, Amasia? Understanding what the next supercontinent will look like is clearly nothing more than speculation.
This is because it is something that will not happen in our lifetime, or in the lifetime of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or even in the future, and therefore it is impossible to verify the hypothesis in the near future.
Nonetheless, it is important to examine the evolution of the Earth, which is taking place over a much longer period of time than the existence of individual humans, including the ever-changing appearance of the Earth at present.
Regardless of whether the hypothesis of the arrival of the next supercontinent is correct, the research results in the field of geology that formed the basis for deriving the hypothesis offer ideas for resolving the climate change crisis that humanity faces today.
Many of the geoengineering solutions humans have devised to reverse climate change, such as spraying sulfur particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet or growing trees and then burying them to capture carbon, mimic the mechanisms of plate tectonics.
In other words, solving climate change is consistent with adopting a plate tectonics-scale mindset and acting accordingly.
This is why we need to be geologically literate and view the world through a geological lens.
This book, which explains the latest earth science research findings in a language accessible to the general public, has another virtue besides conveying the core information of geology in a clear and accessible language.
It also points out the important point of ‘scientific attitude’.
Geology is the study of the Earth's composition, formation process, and past life forms, and is also called 'earth science'.
Reconstructing and uncovering the history of the Earth, estimated to be approximately 4.5 billion years old, is by no means a task that can be accomplished alone.
In particular, the core topic of this book, 'supercontinent research,' is a field that requires global cooperation.
In order to study the supercontinent, it is necessary to first study the rock and geological composition of each continent, and the people who know this best are the geologists of the respective countries.
The process of numerous scholars developing scientific methodology and collaborating to test a single hypothesis is purely moving to witness.
It is truly astonishing that humans, who live less than 100 years, devote their entire lives to studying a continent that moves at the speed of a human fingernail a year, and to predicting the principles of its movement and the changes it will bring.
If humanity survives until a new supercontinent is formed, it will likely be thanks to the knowledge we have accumulated through our sheer curiosity about the planet we live on and our thirst for truth.
“Science takes time.
This can be frustrating, but it can also be saving.
Science is now one vast, interconnected community, with small networks expanding to vast scales.
(…) Thank you for joining me on this time travel from the past to the future.
All is not lost yet, but we really need time.
“Only by looking toward the future can we find a way to become a part of it.” (Page 340)
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: April 21, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 360 pages | 520g | 145*218*25mm
- ISBN13: 9788965967064
- ISBN10: 8965967066
You may also like
카테고리
korean
korean
![ELLE 엘르 스페셜 에디션 A형 : 12월 [2025]](http://librairie.coreenne.fr/cdn/shop/files/b8e27a3de6c9538896439686c6b0e8fb.jpg?v=1766436872&width=3840)
