If an advanced race of beings came to visit Earth today they'd find nothing more than
a bunch of psychotic hairless apes murdering each other over which bit of dirt was theirs.
But if they visited 100 million years from now, what would be waiting for them?
What would our world be like?
Would we still be here?
And if not, what has taken our place?
Let's find out, as we explore what the Earth will look like in 100 million years Number
5: Time for new maps From a distance the Earth would look much as it does today, with random
splotches of green bursting out from a carpet of ocean blue - that's if we've not concreted
over the land and dyed all the seas red with kool aid.
But if the explorers were to somehow come across a depiction of our Earth today and
compare it with what lay before them, they would see a monumental difference thanks to
continental drift.
Continental drift describes the movement of the Earth's continents due to the movement
of tectonic plates beneath them, and it is this which causes mountains to be formed,
earthquakes to occur, and it's also why South America and Africa look like puzzle pieces
that should fit together.
It's because once upon a time, they did.
And over the next 100 million years this will continue, as both North and South America
journey on westwards, eventually merging with Asia to form Amasia.
Good luck building a wall to stop that.
But America won't have Asia all to itself, as Australia also starts to get chummy with
Indonesia, South Korea and the rest by gradually moving northwards.
Meanwhile, Africa will also shift north as the Mediterranean ceases to exist, with a
brand new mountain range forming across the current location of the Persian Gulf.
Eventually, this moving of the continents is expected to lead to the formation of one
supercontinent called Pangaea Proxima or Pangaea Ultima, depending on who's in charge at the
time.
But it's not just plate tectonics which will affect the look of Earth's continents, as
with all of the Antarctic ice expected to have melted within 50million years, rising
ocean levels will see huge bodies of water encroaching into central Africa and the Americas,
with an expanded Baltic Sea also likely.
Furthermore, many of the landmarks we recognise today will be long gone in a hundred million
years' time, with most vanishing much sooner.
Niagara Falls will cease to exist in 50,000 years, the Grand Canyon will broaden and erode
into a valley in two million years, and even the Canadian Rockies will be nothing but a
flat plain within 50 million years.
But what about man?
What will be left of us?
Well in all likelihood...not a lot.
Number 4: The end of mankind To paint a full picture of what the Earth might look like
in a hundred million years we have to consider who or what is likely to be living there at
the time.
But even according to the most generous estimates it's thought unlikely that human beings will
persist for so long, with our end date coming in somewhere between 10,000 and 10million
years based on various interpretations of the Doomsday argument.
So what might be here in our place?
Who will be around to greet future explorers from other worlds?
Well there are an estimated 8.7 million species living on planet Earth, excluding bacteria,
because the germ rights movement hasn't quite taken off yet.
However, very few species around today are expected to survive the next 100 million years,
because both man and nature are colluding to wipe them out.
Over the past 100 million years there have been two major extinction events.
The first was the cretaceous-paleogene event 66 million years ago which took out three
quarters of all plant and animal life on earth, including dinosaurs.
This was probably caused by a combination of comet or asteroid impact plus the formation
of the Deccan traps, and maybe some climate change and sea level change thrown in for
good measure too.
However, the second major extinction event started 10,000 years ago.
And this has just one cause - humanity.
Thanks to man's activities the diversity of life on Earth is decreasing at an unnaturally
rapid rate.
Fauna and flora are disappearing 1000 times faster than the natural background extinction
level, and it may be as high as 10,000 in the near future.
Known as the Holocene extinction, this event is expected to kill off 30% of all known species
over the next hundred years, so over a hundred million years life on this planet will undoubtedly
transform into something we cannot possibly hope to comprehend today.
Will life develop from plankton?
Tardigrades?
Or will a hybrid of geese and jellyfish rule the planet in our place?
I do hope so.
But whatever comes next, it's clear that Earth's life-forms are heading for a major genetic
bottleneck, and it remains to be seen what, if anything, will manage to squeeze through.
Number 3: A Big Hole As we mentioned in the previous entry, we're almost certain that
the previous mass extinction of life on Earth was at least partially caused by the impact
of an asteroid or comet in Mexico's Yucutan Peninsula 66 million years ago.
Such devastating events are thought to occur at least once every 100
million years, with mass or partial extinctions caused every time they do.
These large scale impacts are so deadly because they eject clouds of fine dust into the air,
and these clouds block sunlight, with the end result being lower ground temperatures
and the total and complete shutdown of photosynthesis for several months.
This event could be caused by a stray object from the Oort cloud, from an asteroid hailing
from outside our solar system or even from the debris created when the Martian moon Phobos
strikes its parent planet sometime in the next 50 million years.
At this moment in time we simply cannot predict when such an object will strike the Earth;
all that we know is that it's statistically likely to occur at least once over the next
hundred million years.
So will Earth's inhabitants be prepared to act when it does?
Or will an asteroid impact combine with other factors to finally finish off life once and
for all?
Number 2: A warm glow I hope those intergalactic explorers have brought their hazmat suits,
because in 100 million years the Earth might be ever so slightly radioactive, thanks to
a local star going supernova.
Supernova is the term used to describe the final, cataclysmic explosion which occurs
when a star dies.
When this takes place the dying star emits gamma rays, and if these were to hit Earth
it could strip us of our ozone layer, leaving every single life-form exposed to solar and
cosmic radiation.
It is estimated that supernovae occur within 33 light years of Earth once every 240 million
years, so it's not inconceivable that another could strike within the next 100 million.
The closest known risk comes from IK Pegasi, although this guy is expected to have moved
to a safe distance by the time it's ready to pop.
Another possibility is T Pyxidis, whose Supernova gamma rays are likely to hit the Earth in
about 10million years.
However, it's also considered likely that the next star to go supernova within striking
distance of Earth has yet to be discovered or studied sufficiently to know exactly when
it's gonna blow, so it could happen tomorrow for all we know.
But supernovae aren't necessarily a negative thing when it comes to life.
It certainly means bad news for us and anything else still hanging around at the time of impact,
but conversely, a supernova could kick off an entirely new chapter in the history of
life on Earth, or other nearby planets.
It is thought that the heavy elements produced by supernova actually contributed to the formation
of life on this planet, so while we humans may end up burnt to a crisp, it may be that
the next supernova is merely preparing the Earth for our planet's next
tenants.
And I hope when they move in they replace the sofa, because some guy stayed over last
week and pissed all over it.
Number 1: Hot or Cold Hooray it's time for a climate change entry.
So what's the answer?
In 100 million years will be Earth be a ball of hot lava or a frigid ice world?
Meh, who knows, could be either.
The Earth has experienced five major ice ages that we know of, with the most recent kicking
off three million years ago and continuing to this day.
The reason we don't feel like we're in an ice age is because we're currently in an interglacial
period; and according to some calculations this may last for another 50,000 to 100,000
years.
This delay is thought to have been caused by the man-made increase in carbon dioxide,
but just because we've averted a few million years of snow days doesn't mean we should
carry on doing this willy nilly.
In the short term we're doing major damage to life on our planet, and this could quite
easily lead to our extinction, as it's already doing for many other species.
But in the long term, over millions of years, our impact on the planet is barely even relevant.
So go ahead, smash up a load of birds nests and drizzle radioactive goop into your local
stream - mother Earth doesn't give a damn.
Because while we may have delayed our planet's cooling at present, an eventual global drop
in temperatures is inevitable, as is a rise in temperatures too.
If you look at the past 500 million years you'll see there are frequent peaks and troughs,
with periods of glaciation interchanging with much hotter climates.
These dramatic changes taking place over millions of years illustrate a sobering fact; that
the Earth does not care about us.
It was here before mankind existed and it'll be here when we're gone.
We can mess it up all we want, but all we'll do is wipe ourselves and any other life-forms
out of existence.
Earth will remain, and over the next 100 million years it will endure periods of both extreme
heat and cold.
If life does manage to persist in some form it will have to figure out how to adapt to
these changes and take advantage of the brief periods of stable climate.
A break in the ice age allowed human civilization to develop, so once
we're gone, whatever's left will need to take its chance when the window of opportunity
is open.
And that's our list.
Did you enjoy it?
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