Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 2:25:06 GMT -5
The Earth's foundation is far from static, consisting of plates of solid rock floating in a churning ocean of magma. Over the past 2 billion years, magmatic convection currents have repeatedly separated these plates to form oceans and continents before crashing them back into a supercontinent. This occurs in cycles of approximately once every 600 million years. Scientists expect the next supercontinent to form within 250 million years, when Earth's landmasses collide with each other (probably at the equator) to form Pangea Ultima. This new continent will be hot: not only will much of its equatorial land mass lack the cooling effect caused by the oceans; but it will absorb more radiation from an older, more active sun and will be inundated with significantly more carbon dioxide due to volcanic activity.
This probably spells doom for mammals. The animal system (sports adaptations such as sweat glands and a heat-removing circulatory system) is quite good at coping with high temperatures. However, if Job Function Email Database the temperature is increased above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in dry heat, or 95 F (35 C) when humid, these temperature regulators begin to fail; avoiding the elimination of dangerous excess heat from the bodies. To find out how habitable Earth will be in the future, scientists turned to a supercomputer-run climate model that forecasts temperatures and humidity at Pangea Ultima. With most of the Earth's landmass locked in; the aging sun emits 2.5% more radiation; and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase to 1.5 times current levels: the simulation found that only 8% of the supercontinent's land would be habitable for mammals.
Scientists hope that much of this temperature rise could come from massive eruptions that form regions filled with lava and belching carbon known as large igneous provinces. Driven by the powerful, crunching tectonics of colliding plates, the growth of these hellish provinces will leave mammals with little time to adapt to rising temperatures. "While there are some very specialized mammals today that can inhabit regions like the Sahara, it remains to be seen whether these mammals would be preferentially selected and their descendants would radiate back into Pangea Ultima and dominate," Farnsworth said. «Maybe reptiles are better adapted? Or something completely different? Researchers say it also remains a possibility that Pangea Ultima threatens the end of all life, especially if temperatures rise so much that plants can no longer photosynthesize.
This probably spells doom for mammals. The animal system (sports adaptations such as sweat glands and a heat-removing circulatory system) is quite good at coping with high temperatures. However, if Job Function Email Database the temperature is increased above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in dry heat, or 95 F (35 C) when humid, these temperature regulators begin to fail; avoiding the elimination of dangerous excess heat from the bodies. To find out how habitable Earth will be in the future, scientists turned to a supercomputer-run climate model that forecasts temperatures and humidity at Pangea Ultima. With most of the Earth's landmass locked in; the aging sun emits 2.5% more radiation; and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase to 1.5 times current levels: the simulation found that only 8% of the supercontinent's land would be habitable for mammals.
Scientists hope that much of this temperature rise could come from massive eruptions that form regions filled with lava and belching carbon known as large igneous provinces. Driven by the powerful, crunching tectonics of colliding plates, the growth of these hellish provinces will leave mammals with little time to adapt to rising temperatures. "While there are some very specialized mammals today that can inhabit regions like the Sahara, it remains to be seen whether these mammals would be preferentially selected and their descendants would radiate back into Pangea Ultima and dominate," Farnsworth said. «Maybe reptiles are better adapted? Or something completely different? Researchers say it also remains a possibility that Pangea Ultima threatens the end of all life, especially if temperatures rise so much that plants can no longer photosynthesize.