This animation shows the motions of the continents into the future. (Be patient, it may take a minute or so to download the Java applet and images to your computer.) This animation was made by projecting present-day plate motions into the future, and trying to take into account unpredictable events, such as the formation of new subduction zones. By extending present-day plate motions into the future we can easily predict that Africa will collide with southern Europe closing the Mediterranean, that Australia will collide with S.E. Asia and China, and California will slide northward along the west coast.

Subduction is now beginning in the Central Indian Ocean, and it seems likely that new subduction zones will form off the east coast of the Americas. (Subduction has already begun in the Puerto Rican trench and Scotia arc.) If this happens, then Antarctica will be drawn northward towards India, and the Atlantic will close forming a new ring-shaped Pangea.

The dark blue areas are deep ocean basins. The light blue areas are flooded continental shelves and oceanic plateaus. The tan areas are land, and the yellow areas are mountains. The continents are covered by the sea when there is a lot of rifting going on, and they are emergent when the continents are in collision.

All these animations are available on CD-ROM in Quicktime format. For more information see Teaching Materials

This page uses a java applet that displays a VR model. Visit FreedomVR at www.honeylocust.com/vr/ for more information about this applet.



(c) PALEOMAP Project, 1999. Thanks to WebDoGS by Paul Howell for inspiration.