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If the plates were to collide into a super continent, would the mountains that are already at the plate boundaries grow?
Question Date: 2013-12-16
Answer 1:

YES! When plates collide, great mountain belts form, and many, many earthquakes occur. If mountains already exist then they will be rejuvenated, and undergo a new phase of uplift. This is what is happening TODAY where the sub-continent of INDIA is smashing into EURASIA. This deformation has created the uplift we call the Himalaya Mountains.

This uplift started about 30 million years ago roughly. A short time on the geological scale. Remember, the age of the earth is 4568 million years, and humans, as we know them, have been around for less than 1 million years... more like several hundred thousand years.


Answer 2:

It is predicted that a new supercontinent will form in the future, currently dubbed “Amasia.” This will occur from the merger of Asia and North America over the North Pole as North America is pushed westward by the Atlantic mid-ocean ridge. The Pacific Ocean will also likely close due to the Pacific Plate subducting under Eurasia and North America. Mountains that are currently being formed by plate boundaries would likely continue to grow, and new mountains would form at the junction of Asia and North America. Amasia is estimated to form in about 50 – 200 million years.


Answer 3:

That would depend on where the collision happened.

The truth is that a new supercontinent is forming: Australia is colliding with southeastern Asia, Africa is ramming into Europe, and North America is colliding with both Europe and with Asia as it drifts northward. Where the collisions take place, new mountains will form. The mountain ranges that already exist will either continue to be there if there is still a plate collision or will erode away if there isn't. Right now, for example, India is continuing to plow northward into Asia and the mountains around Tibet (Himalaya, Karakorum, Hindu Kush, Pamir, Tien Shan, and Kunlun mountain ranges) are getting bigger as a result.


Answer 4:

Mountain building happens when 2 continental plates collide. A current example is India (the Indian plate) being pushed underneath of Asia (Eurasian plate) and the result is the Himalayan mountains. So if a super-continent were to form, where the different continents collide mountains would form. Over very long periods of time (millions of years), the tectonic plates (and continents) move, and collide, and separate and we have evidence of ancient supercontinents and collisions through what we call "suture zones". These are areas that are really deformed from mountain building, but they have since eroded-- they don't look like mountains anymore but they are proof of old continents colliding and creating mountains, such as when previous super-continents, such as Pangea, formed.

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