Extreme temperatures, radiation and collapse of food supply created by merging of continents would cause mass extinction
The formation of a supercontinent on Earth could wipe out humans and any other mammals that are still around in 250m years, according to a study.
The supercontinent Pangea Ultima is expected to take shape when all the current continents merge together in the distant future. The, is the first attempt to model how extreme the climate might become from that geological rearrangement. In the era of Pangea Ultima, the temperature extremes are expected to be dramatic, with more humidity than now along the coasts and extremely arid conditions in the vast inland deserts. In this world, global temperatures could rise 15C above pre-industrial levels, which would return the world to the extreme heat it last went through in the Permian–Triassic era, 260m years ago, when more than 90% of species were eradicated.
Hominids emerged about 6m years ago when the world was a much cooler place than it had been during the dinosaur period. Although our species has developed remarkably quickly, we would face enormous challenges in the era of Pangea Ultima, assuming we make it through the current self-caused climate crisis and mass extinction of other species.
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