A team of scientists from the University of Derby says that the breakup of Europe and North America is still ongoing, making them one continent.
“The discovery suggests that the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates have not yet separated, as was traditionally thought to have happened 52 million years ago. They are actually still stretching and in the process of separating,” said study author Dr. Jordan Fithian.
The new study focused on the formation of Iceland, which lies between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.
By analyzing the movement of tectonic plates in Africa, scientists now suggest that Iceland and the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge (GIFR) contain pieces of lost and submerged fragments of both the European and North American continents.
They call this newly recognized feature the “rifted oceanic volcanic plateau,” or ROMP for short.
“By studying the evolution of the rift in the Afra volcanic region of Africa and comparing it to the behaviour of the ground in Iceland, we can see that these two regions evolve in very similar ways,” Dr. Fithian explained.
If the scientists are right, it means that the breakup of Europe and North America is still ongoing. Scientifically, this means that North America and Europe can be classified as one continent, not two.
“While it is controversial to say that the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge (GIFR) contains a significant amount of continental crust within it, and that the European and North American tectonic plates may not have formally separated yet, our results suggest that this is the case,” Dr. Fithian added.
Scientists now plan to explore volcanic rocks in Iceland for more concrete evidence of ancient continental crust.
They are also modeling the tectonic plates of the area, and will use computer simulations to try to model the formation of a “rifted oceanic volcanic plateau” (ROMP).
“The rifting and formation of microcontinents is an ongoing phenomenon,” said Dr. Fithian. “The discovery of the Davis Strait proto-microcontinent allows us to better understand the process by which microcontinents form, which in turn tells us more about how plate tectonics works on Earth.”
Source: Daily Mail
#Study #North #America #Europe #continent
2024-08-06 12:12:58
