I don't want to alarm ya, but scientists think that the Atlantic Ocean might be dying

[Locutus]

from Fark

Will new tectonic fault system kill the Atlantic? - environment - 17 June 2013 - New Scientist

 

[Timetrvlr]

Dang, I was just getting used to it and it's dying already?

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

It's not much of an emergency.

Oceans come and go over hundreds of millions of years. New ones are born when continents are ripped apart, allowing hot magma to bubble up and solidify into oceanic crust. They die when continents collide and force oceanic crust back down into the mantle.

 

[karrie]

It's not much of an emergency.

Oh? What does that say about the species who rely on those oceans? It's all well and good that it's a natural cycle, but it's gonna suck the big one for us.

 

[L Gilbert]

I don't live near the Atlantic, so it's no big deal to me. I think it'd be really cool to see the ME riding up onto Europe, or vice versa, too

 

[WLDB]

Oh? What does that say about the species who rely on those oceans? It's all well and good that it's a natural cycle, but it's gonna suck the big one for us.

Not so much us as them. Probably no one alive today either. Either way neither we nor any other species in or out of the ocean will last forever. Some poor suckers are doomed to be the last sooner or later.

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

Oh? What does that say about the species who rely on those oceans? It's all well and good that it's a natural cycle, but it's gonna suck the big one for us.

Oceans come and go over hundreds of millions of years. New ones are born when continents are ripped apart, allowing hot magma to bubble up and solidify into oceanic crust. They die when continents collide and force oceanic crust back down into the mantle.

Plates move very slowly, if the Atlantic is in fact entering a phase of contraction, it will take millions of years to disappear and many of the species now inhabiting it won't be around and what is there will have ample opportunity to relocate to wherever there is ocean. It's not an emergency.

I'd be far more concerned about what's happening in the near term with the oceans.

Future Climate Change | Climate Change | US EPA

 

[petros]

Are you sure it's not man's 'fault"?

 

[L Gilbert]

Not so much us as them. Probably no one alive today either. Either way neither we nor any other species in or out of the ocean will last forever. Some poor suckers are doomed to be the last sooner or later.

True. Assuming a comet or asteroid doesn't knock Earth out of orbit, the sun going red giant in some 2 billion years or so will turn Earth into a charcoal briquette.

I'd be far more concerned about what's happening in the near term with the oceans.

You mean like this:
Massive Outbreak of Jellyfish Could Spell Trouble for Fisheries by Richard Stone: Yale Environment 360

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

This gives some idea of how slow the plates move, The North American continental plate for instance moves about 1 cm a year.

Speed of the Continental Plates

 

[captain morgan]

Maybe if we dumped the tailings from the oilsands in the Atlantic, it might help speed up the process

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

This article indicates it may take 20 million years for the new subduction zone to become active, it would then take many more millions of years to bring North America and Eurasian landmasses together closing off the Atlantic.

North America most likely to collide with Europe – Duarte – InSerbia News

The findings provide a unique opportunity to observe a passive margin becoming active – a process that will take around 20 million years. Even at this early phase the site will yield data that is crucial to refining the geodynamic models.