The continents as we see it today has been the result of millions of years of change. The Earth is still changing, as the continents slowly move. A new evidence shows that the Pangea breakup has likely thinned the Earth's crust.
Pangea is the huge continent from a long time ago. Geologists have studied through plate tectonics that a long time ago, the continents were connected together to make up the supercontinent known as Pangea. Over time the supercontinent began to break up, resulting into the continents seen now.
When Pangea broke up, the Earth's crust has become thinner as a result of this. This has been according to the study by Harm Van Avendonk, lead author of the study and a senior research scientist from the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. This thinning of the Earth's crust is related to the Earth's interior cooling. When the continent began to split, the Earth's interior also cooled.
Van Avendonk likened the continent to a blanket. The continent kept the Earth's interior's temperature even. When the continent broke, it exposed the mantle to the atmosphere and the ocean's cooler temperatures. That has slowly cooled the Earth.
Magma comes from the Earth's mantle. Magma makes up the oceanic crust as it comes out and spreads. However since Pangea broke up, the mantle has also been cooling. The mantle has also increased its cooling rate to 15-20 degrees Celsius per 100 million years, according to Texas Geosciences. This cooling effect has made the mantle produce less magma. Lesser magma, in turn, would mean lesser material for the Earth's crust.
Van Avendonk also pointed out that the Earth's inner layers are cooling much faster. One reason for that is because of plate tectonics. The plates have gaps wherein heat dissipates from the Earth. At the same time, cooler temperatures from the atmosphere and the oceans come in. The plates have become an efficient cooling system for the Earth.
To investigate the theory, the team has made computer models of plate movement. The models showed how the Earth was since the Jurassic age to the present, as Science Daily reports. Through the models, the researchers have shown that the plates have much to do with how the Earth cooled and why the crust has thinned. Van Avendonk has worked together with Jennifer Harding, Ph.D. student and Joshua Davis, also a Ph.D. student.
The Earth's crust has thinned much. Research has shown that the Pangea breakup likely thinned the Earth's crust. A research on an old star shows what the future of the Earth would be like.
