Article 57JJ0 Amazing interactive globe shows the very different location of your city 750 million years ago

Amazing interactive globe shows the very different location of your city 750 million years ago

by
David Pescovitz
from on (#57JJ0)

Earth has changed quite a bit in the past 750 million years or so. Due to plate tectonics-the shifting of the Earth's surface-the location of your city is likely far from where it is today. Computer scientist Ian Webster created this stunning interactive "Ancient Earth Globe" that pinpoints your city where it was located at various points in deep history, from 20 million to 750 million years ago. You can also learn about w hat was happening with the flora and fauna at the time. From CNN:

"It shows that our environment is dynamic and can change," Webster, 30, told CNN. "The history of Earth is longer than we can conceive, and the current arrangement of plate tectonics and continents is an accident of time. It will be very different in the future, and Earth may outlast us all."

Webster built the map as a web application that sits on top of another map which visualizes geological models created by geologist and paleogeographer Christopher Scotese. Scotese's models describe plate tectonic development since 750 million years ago, not long after green algae first evolved in the Earth's oceans.Webster's site also utilizes GPlates, a software used by geologists to visualize plate tectonic reconstructions and associated data through geological time.

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