Abstract
Abstract. The Earth is currently 180 Myr into a supercontinent cycle that began with the break-up of Pangaea and which will end around 200–250 Myr (million years) in the future, as the next supercontinent forms. As the continents move around the planet they change the geometry of ocean basins, and thereby modify their resonant properties. In doing so, oceans move through tidal resonance, causing the global tides to be profoundly affected. Here, we use a dedicated and established global tidal model to simulate the evolution of tides during four future supercontinent scenarios. We show that the number of tidal resonances on Earth varies between one and five in a supercontinent cycle and that they last for no longer than 20 Myr. They occur in opening basins after about 140–180 Myr, an age equivalent to the present-day Atlantic Ocean, which is near resonance for the dominating semi-diurnal tide. They also occur when an ocean basin is closing, highlighting that within its lifetime, a large ocean basin – its history described by the Wilson cycle – may go through two resonances: one when opening and one when closing. The results further support the existence of a super-tidal cycle associated with the supercontinent cycle and gives a deep-time proxy for global tidal energetics.
Highlights
The continents have coalesced into supercontinents and dispersed several times in Earth’s history in a process known as the supercontinent cycle (Nance et al, 1988)
The supercontinent cycle is believed to be an effect of plate tectonics and mantle convection (Torsvik, 2010, 2016; Pastor-Galan, 2018), and the break-up and accretion of supercontinents are a consequence of the opening and closing of ocean basins (Wilson, 1966; Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni, 2002)
We investigated how the tides may evolve during four probable scenarios of the formation of Earth’s future supercontinent
Summary
The continents have coalesced into supercontinents and dispersed several times in Earth’s history in a process known as the supercontinent cycle (Nance et al, 1988). Pangaea was the latest supercontinent to exist on Earth, forming ∼ 300 Ma ago, and breaking up around 180 Ma ago, initiating the current supercontinent cycle (Scotese, 1991; Golonka, 2007). Another supercontinent should form within the 200–300 Myr The life cycle of each ocean basin is known as the Wilson cycle. A supercontinent cycle may be comprised of more than one Wilson cycle, as several oceans may open and close between the break-up and reformation of a supercontinent As ocean basins evolve during the progression of the Wilson cycle (and associated supercontinent cycle), the energetics of the tides within the basins change (Kagan, 1997; Green et al, 2017). Green et al (2017, 2018) simulated the evolu-
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