Although Earth’s total surface area does not change, the size and shape of individual plates are constantly changing. For example, the African and Antarctic plates, which are mainly bounded by divergent boundaries—sites of seafloor production—are continually growing in size as new lithosphere is added to their margins. By contrast, the Pacific plate is being consumed into the mantle along much of its flanks faster than it is being generated along the East Pacific Rise and thus is diminishing in size.

Another result of plate motion is that boundaries migrate. For example, the position of the Peru–Chile trench, which is the result of the Nazca plate being bent downward as it descends beneath the South American plate, has changed over time ▼. Because of the westward drift of the South American plate relative to the Nazca plate, the Peru–Chile trench has migrated in a westerly direction as well.

Another result of plate motion is that boundaries migrate. For example, the position of the Peru–Chile trench, which is the result of the Nazca plate being bent downward as it descends beneath the South American plate, has changed over time ▲. Because of the westward drift of the South American plate relative to the Nazca plate, the Peru–Chile trench has migrated in a westerly direction as well.

Plate boundaries can also be created or destroyed in response to changes in the forces acting on the lithosphere. For example, some plates carrying continental crust are presently moving toward one another. In the South Pacific, Australia is moving northward toward southern Asia. If Australia continues its northward migration, the boundary separating it from Asia will eventually become inactive and disappear as these plates become one. Other plates are moving apart. Recall that the Red Sea is the site of a relatively new spreading center that came into existence less than 20 million years ago, when the Arabian Peninsula began to break apart from Africa. The breakup of Pangaea is a classic example of how plate boundaries change through geologic time.

The Breakup of Pangaea

Wegener used evidence from fossils, rock types, and ancient climates to create a jigsaw-puzzle fit of the continents, thereby creating his supercontinent Pangaea. By employing modern tools not available to Wegener, geologists have re-created the steps in the breakup of this supercontinent, an event that began about  million years ago. From this work, the dates when individual crustal fragments separated from one another and their relative motions have been well established ▼ .

An important consequence of Pangaea’s breakup was the creation of a “new” ocean basin: the Atlantic. As demonstrated in ▲ , splitting of the supercontinent did not occur simultaneously along the margins of the Atlantic. The first split developed between North America and Africa. Here, the continental crust was highly fractured, providing pathways for huge quantities of fluid lavas to reach the surface. Today, these lavas are represented by weathered igneous rocks found along the eastern coast of the United States—primarily buried beneath the sedimentary rocks that form the continental shelf. Radiometric dating of these solidified lavas indicates that rifting began between 200 million and 190 million years ago. This time span represents the “birth date” for this section of the North Atlantic.

By 130 million years ago, the South Atlantic began to open near the tip of what is now South Africa ▼ . As this zone of rifting migrated northward, it gradually opened the South Atlantic ▼ .

Continued breakup of the southern landmass led to the separation of Africa and Antarctica and sent India on a northward journey. By the early Cenozoic era, about 50 million years ago, Australia had separated from Antarctica, and the South Atlantic had become a full-fledged ocean ▼.

India eventually collided with Asia ▼, an event that began about 180 million years ago and created the Himalayas and the Tibetan Highlands. About the same time, the separation of Greenland from Eurasia completed the breakup of the northern landmass. 

During the past 20 million years or so of Earth’s history, Arabia has rifted from Africa to form the Red Sea, and Baja California has separated from Mexico to form the Gulf of California ▼. Meanwhile, the Panama Arc joined North America and South America to produce our globe’s familiar modern appearance.

Plate Tectonics in the Future

Geologists have extrapolated present-day plate movements into the future. Figure 23 illustrates where Earth’s landmasses may be 50 million years from now if present plate movements persist during this time span.

In North America we see that the Baja Peninsula and the portion of southern California that lies west of the San Andreas Fault will have slid past the North American plate. If this northward migration continues, Los Angeles and San Francisco will pass each other in about 10 million years, and in about 60 million years, the Baja Peninsula will begin to collide with the Aleutian Islands.

If Africa maintains its northward path, it will continue to collide with Eurasia. The result will be the closing of the Mediterranean, the last remnant of a once-vast ocean called the Tethys Ocean, and the initiation of another major mountain-building episode. Australia will be astride the equator and, along with New Guinea, will be on a collision course with Asia. Meanwhile, North and South America will begin to separate, while the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will continue to grow, at the expense of the Pacific Ocean.

A few geologists have even speculated on the nature of the globe 250 million years in the future. In this scenario, the Atlantic seafloor will eventually become old and dense enough to form subduction zones around much of its margins, not unlike the present-day Pacific basin. Continued subduction of the Atlantic Ocean floor will result in the closing of the Atlantic basin and the collision of the Americas with the Eurasian–African landmass to form the next supercontinent, dubbed “Pangaea Proxima,” shown in ▼. Support for the possible closing of the Atlantic comes from evidence for a similar event, when an ocean predating the Atlantic closed during Pangaea’s formation. Australia is also projected to collide with Southeast Asia by that time. If this scenario is accurate, the dispersal of Pangaea will end when the continents reorganize into the next supercontinent.

Such projections, although interesting, must be viewed with considerable skepticism because many assumptions must be correct for these events to unfold as just described. Nevertheless, changes in the shapes and positions of continents that are equally profound will undoubtedly occur for many hundreds of millions of years to come. Only after much more of Earth’s internal heat has been lost will the engine that drives plate motions cease.

• Although the total surface area of Earth does not change, the shape and size of individual plates are constantly changing as a result of subduction and seafloor spreading. Plate boundaries can also be created or destroyed in response to changes in the forces acting on the lithosphere.

• The breakup of Pangaea and the collision of India with Eurasia are two examples of how plates change through geologic time.

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