Based on current knowledge, scientists can figure out what will happen in the far future. We have prepared for you the most interesting events that await our planet. Let’s think about it together.
Prognostics are not easy. It is enough to confuse one and two times, and they almost always meet with criticism. Whether it’s the weather, election models or bookmakers. It combines them with one thing: they predict early events.
However, thanks to the long-term work of scientists and researchers, we already have information available to help us predict the future from a thousand to billions of years. The benefit of similar work is obvious: if your estimation is wrong, no one will ever get it out of your sight.
Take a look at the selection of the most interesting events that our planet is waiting for in the future. It should be noted that it is often (especially in the distant future) about approximate estimates, and the numbers are therefore to be taken with reserve. In some cases, the views of the event differ, and we follow the studies we refer to.
Red areas on Greenland shows how ice is floating
For 2000 years: the Greenland glacier melts. The question is only when. The study in Nature reports specific figures, but the authors are calculating with unpredictable global warming. The entire glacier would melt for 2000 years when the average temperature rose by 8 ° C, the highest possible value scientists are counting on at this time. In case of the warmth of the lowest assumption (2 ° C), we will find the remains of the Greenland glacier in 50,000 years. At present, the world’s largest island is losing 270 billion tons of ice a year, and if it melts whole, it would raise ocean levels by six meters.
Rotation, precession, nudity
For 13,000 years: Reversal of the Earth’s inclination. One of the moves that the Earth exerts is called precession. You can imagine it as if the Earth was the tip of a cone that draws its imaginary axis. One such move will take 25,800 years (this period is called the Platonic Year). Now we are closer to the Sun during the winter and then during the summer. For 13,000 years, this will be the opposite, which is why the season will probably be more intense.
Morocco – Sahara – … 4 hours by car from Zagora 45 ° C
For 15,000 years: the Sahara is glowing. Even the largest desert in the world of the Sahara is going through periods – though it takes a long time. About eight thousand years ago it was in the middle of a “damp phase”, given the existence of a monsoon. Where did he get there? As the earth’s axis changes, the time in which the sunlight (as well as its intensity) is changing in different regions of the Earth changes. This, among other things, raises or, on the contrary, reduces the effects of seasonal winds. Eight thousand years ago, the northern hemisphere was warmer, causing monsoon activity, and it rained regularly in the Sahara. And in this stage, Earth will again be in a few thousand years.
For 20,000 years: The Chernobyl Zone will be safe. Animals and plants are evidence that life is already possible near the former power plant, even though it carries signs of radiation (twisted trees, animals with a high level of cesium). The surrounding area will be infested for about 20,000 years before it becomes completely harmless for human health.
Tetrafluoromethane
50,000 years: Lifetime of the strongest greenhouse gas. Tetrafluoromethane – a gas that will stay the longest for the rest of the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. The bonds between carbon and fluoride are the strongest bonds in organic chemistry we know. Its lifetime varies between 3 and 50,000 years and is about 6500 times more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Niagara Falls, Canada
Over 50,000 years: Niagara Falls will disappear. One of the most famous waterfalls in the world, like all others, is eroding. By the arrival of people, they moved at a rate of one meter per year (upstream). However, by regulating the flow in hydropower plants, erosion has been reduced to 30 centimeters a year. Even with this reduction, however, 50,000-year-old waterfalls will “run out” to Lake Erie, they will disappear completely, leaving only a riverbed.
Map of Hawaiian Islands
For 250,000 years: the Hawaiian addition. The Hawaii archipelago forms a belt of volcanoes that emerge and sink again. At present, the US state is spreading over the top five volcanoes, which will sink again in the future. Loihi, the youngest Hawaiian chain volcano, over a quarter million years will get above sea level and become the newest island.
Lady Elliot Island, Australia
For 2 Million Years: Coral Recovery. It will take so long to recover corals from the current acidification of the oceans. Lowering the pH causes the excess CO2 to dissolve from the atmosphere and subsequent corrosion. About a third of the CO2 we produce will dissolve in some water. The last time the oceans acidified at this rate (65 million years ago), it took two million years before the corals recovered.
Mount Rushmore
In 7.2 million years: Mount Rushmore dies. The most famous rock of the United States is unrecognizable. Alan Weisman is counting on one inch of granite for ten thousand years. It is possible that the monument would last longer if it had been completed – it was originally intended to capture the presidents up to the waist.
East African Rift
For 10 Million Years: The Fall of Africa. The face of our planet will change. The fastest changes in the area of rifts, seismic or volcanic zones will be observed. An East African rift will flood the Red Sea and today’s Somalia in ten million years, and part of East Africa will become a separate island. Africa will continue on its northern pilgrimage to Europe.
San Andreas breaks down California into two parts.
For 25 Million Years: California Breaking. San Andreas’s most famous American break will cause California Bay to flood the Great California Valley and create a new island in the Pacific. For the next 25 million years, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco will compare (today it is divided by 900 kilometers).
Africa’s impact on Europe
For 50 million years: Africa’s collision with Europe. Africa’s impact on Europe will create a new mountain range similar to the Himalayas. Long before the Gibraltar Strait closes, the Mediterranean will dry up. The movement of the continents is such an interesting matter that you can look forward to an article dedicated to their future.
Winter and summertime are still changing around 80 countries around the world
Over 180 million years: Day an hour longer. Due to the effects of the Moon, Earth’s rotation is continually slowing and the day is prolonged. This is a very, very negligible slowdown – the last one hundred years have been prolonged by 1.4 milliseconds. The day is extended by one hour for a long 180 million years.
Over 600 million years: Extinction of most vegetation. Increasing solar activity disturbs the carbon cycle (carbon exchange process between different spheres of the Earth). Because of this, atmospheric concentrations will drop dramatically, and according to M. Heath and L. Doyle, it will drop in 600 million years to the extent that C3 plants will not be able to photosynthesis. C3 plants are photosynthesized using the so-called Calvin Cycle. They include the vast majority of biomass (except for some tropical plants, corn in our country), and lack of CO2 is condemning to it.
Drought
Over 800 million years: End of plants and animals. The low CO2 level will no longer allow plant life, which is photosynthesized by the so-called Hatch-Slack cycle. Once there is no vegetation on Earth, the oxygen concentration will begin to decrease in the atmosphere. Because of this, the ozone layer will begin to weaken, and eventually survivors will begin to bombard the UV radiation, which is just protecting us from ozone concentrations. Oxygen also begins to thaw out of the oceans. High temperatures, UV radiation, and scarce oxygen concentrations are likely to lead to the extinction of all animals. Only single-cell bacteria remain.
Tectonics
For 1,1 billion years: Stopping tectonic plates. The Sun’s radiance rises by 10 percent, raising the Earth’s temperature by about 47 ° C. The oceans begin to evaporate faster. According to a team of American scientists, the evaporation of water together with the curing of the outer casing will cause tectonic plates to slow down. “The subduction of the plates (the mutual insertion of one under the other) assists the presence of surface water as a lubricant. Once the oceans evaporate, the movement of the tectonic plates stops completely, “the authors of the study write.
Dead planet
For 1.6 billion years: End of all living. While animals and eukaryotic organisms are likely to die primarily due to high temperatures, the remaining prokaryotic life will cease later. However, opinions differ on what will be the cause. According to one study, this would be a CO2 shortage in one and a half billion years. Authors of another study assume that small colonies of unicellular organisms can survive almost twice as much within mountains and caves. The primary factor will be the temperature again – for 2.8 billion years when the Earth is warming at an average of 149 ° C.
Magnetosphere
For 2.3 billion years: Extinction of two spheres. Our earth’s core consists of two parts: internal (solid) and external (liquid). The friction of the liquid part of the core creates a magnetic field that protects our atmosphere from cosmic radiation and solar wind. But the inner core grows outward, at a rate of 1 mm per year. In more than two billion years our planet will reach the point where the outer core under pressure will stiffen and the friction will cease to produce the magnetic field. Then it is only a matter of time before our planet comes almost completely on the atmosphere.
