This episode of Map Men
is brought to you by Stereo. - Peru next to Australia? - Mozambique joined to India? - Malaysia in Antarctica? - Today, we'll be asking, where will the countries be
in 250 million years? - Welcome to Map Men. - We're the men. - And here's. . . the map. ♫ Map Men, Map Men, ♫
♫ Map Map Map Men, Men. ♫ - When Mark and I hang out together, - one of the things we often discuss--
- We never hang out, - this is a purely business relationship.
- One of the things we would discuss is how disappointingly few double-landlocked
countries there are. Countries that are not only landlocked, but surrounded by landlocked countries. - There's Uzbekistan, there's Liechtenstein, and that's it. - This is because the world's major land masses are nicely spread out across
the world's oceans. and the furthest you can ever get
from a coastline, is just 1,600 miles, here in the un-Chinese sounding
Gurbantünggüt Desert in China. - But the continents haven't always been
this well socially distanced. - 180 million years ago, before the second
and first world wars, the world looked like this. - Of course, the dinosaurs who were
in charge at the time knew nothing of the theory
of plate tectonics, that were about to drive them apart. - It wasn't until the year 1915, collided
with the person Alfred Wegener, that this new and groundbreaking idea
took hold. Alfred was a super smart German meteorologist
and geophysicist who was particularly good at puzzles, and, looking at the world map,
Alfred spotted a pattern. The shape of South America fit
suspiciously snugly into west Africa. Could it be that the continents fitted together
in a sort of puzzle of their own? - Many of the pieces of this puzzle were missing having been eroded over millions of years. But, Alfred realised this particular puzzle
had legacy written all over it, and set out to prove that
their interlocking shapes weren't a coincidence. - He started by looking at rocks, and realised that the rocks
on the east coast of South America, were, in many places, identical to the rocks
on the west coast of Africa. An encouraging bit of evidence. But, rocks alone weren't solid enough. So next, Alfred studied the fossil record. -There was evidence of the exact same species
of dinosaur living on separate continents
vast oceans apart. He found fossils of the lystrosaurus
in Africa, Antarctica, and... ...here in India. - It was thunderingly unlikely that
this unique Triassic animal could have evolved on three
separate occasions. The more logical explanation
was that these landmasses - must once have been connected.
- Thunderingly? - Using his new theory called Continental Drift-- --or Kontinentalverschiebung for long-- Wegener mapped exactly how the continents
fitted together millions of years ago. - He called this supercontinent
"Pangaea", - Greek for "all the earth". - The theory went thus. North and South America were once attached
to modern day Africa, but they broke apart, forming
the Atlantic Ocean. - And India was once attached
to Antarctica, but it broke off and smashed
into Asia with such force, it made the Himalayan mountain range. Everyone else at the time
roundly disagreed with him, as "at the time" people always do. He froze to death in Greenland before
anyone took his stupid theory seriously. - But, years later while he was still dead, scientists happened upon something
that proved Alfred was right. They discovered how continents
were able to move -- -- something Alfred had never bothered
to work out. They found that convection currents
in the mantle, or hot bit beneath the earth's crust, slowly drive landmasses apart
then back together again, over cycles of about 500 million years. - This meant that Pangea, far from being
the original Supercontinent, was actually the 11th to have formed
in earth's history. - So, if the continents are still moving--
which they are-- - the obvious and exciting question becomes
- When are the dinosaurs coming back? - Where are the continents going next? - The best way of understanding
where we might end up, is to take a good look at which way the convection currents are currently flowing
all under the world. - And where better to start than the most
tectonically active place on the planet? The Australia plate has, as you can see, moved northwards a massive 3.5 metres
in the last fifty years. At 7cm a year, this makes it the fastest moving
tectonic plate on earth. - Oof! This movement is actually causing chaos
on GPS systems here in Australia. The data points still used today
were fixed way back in 1994, when the country was a full 1.8 metres
further south west than it is now, which can be the difference between
the right lane, and the pavement. [crash] - The effects of Australia's movement
are already being felt across fiery Indonesia, where the subduction of the Australia plate
under the Sunda plate, has forged some of the most
active volcanoes in the world. like Mount Merapi, which some of the best people
in the world are known to have climbed. Oop... sorry. As Australia continues north, it's expected to make a handbrake turn
to the left, as it gobbles up Papua New Guinea, before absolutely smashing into China. So Beijing, and Shanghai, may find themselves
8,000 metres up, on top of a new mountain range
as big as the Himalayas. - Meanwhile in the Western Hemisphere, the Nubian and Somali plates will split apart
along the East African Rift Valley, a process which has already begun as demonstrated by this massive crack
which appeared in Kenya, in 2018. Over the next few million years, we can expect
a new sea to appear here. The big bit of Africa, will continue
to head north towards Europe, so get ready for the Alps to get bigger, and the Mediterranean to disappear. - Somewhere between 100-200 million years
from now, and yes that really is the kind of margin for error
we're dealing with, Antarctica will slowly make its way
to join the big collision party, alongside Australia and south east Asia, - leaving only the Americas, which are travelling
in a westerly direction, widening the Atlantic, and shrinking
the Pacific into nonexistence. You can see North America here,
nicely spooning Australia, with South America cosying up
to now tropical Antarctica, finishing off our big continental group hug. - Aw, isn't that nice? Scientists call this future supercontinent,
"Novopangaea". - Latin and Greek for "new all the earth". - Imagine that, one happy connected island
with no oceans to divide us. But how sure can we be that
this is exactly how - it's going to pan out?
- Positively unsure. Even with all the data and powerful
computer modelling in the world, there's a decent chance the experts
have got it wrong. - Novopangea, is merely what would happen
if the convection currents in the mantle carry on exactly as they are
and don't change. But some really radical scientists have come up with some different models
for how the world could look. - First, there's Aurica. . . or, Ow-rica? Where Eurasia splits in half and both
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans close up. Then, there's Pangaea Ultima, the name which sounds most like
a terrible Bond film, where Britain gets closer to America! - And finally there's Amasia, where all the continents congregate
around the north pole except Antarctica, who--no matter
what the model is is always the laziest continent. Watching the world's landmasses
slowly cycle around the globe as millions of years tick by,
is a nice reminder of our own utterly insignificant place
within the universe. - Which is why we recommend
sharing this video with any self-important friends you may have,
as a way of reminding them how crushingly unimportant they really are. - Of course, wondering where countries will be
in 250 million years, assumes countries, and even humans,
will last that long. Right now, it seems the chances of us surviving more than a few metres of continental drift
are incredibly unlikely, as we grapple with overpopulation,
climate change, pandemics, wars, pollution, and mass extinction. - But if we do somehow survive and find ourselves
living side by side on a supercontinent packed with double-landlocked countries we're at least going to have to figure out
how to be nicer to one another, and extend the olive branch
of human friendship. - So, fancy a pint? - I'm not really thirsty. - Oh good, it's time for my favourite part
of Map Men; the silly advert at the end. - Hello everyone. There's no advert this week. - What?. . . Why? - Because, this time, we want to tell you
about a new thing - Mark and I have been working on.
- Okay. . . - Mark and I have got a new spin-off show
on Stereo. - But it's NOT an advert? - Stereo is a free app, that livestreams
audio conversations between two people, and lets you interact and leave
voice comments. Once you've designed your avatar, you can listen to conversations
from all across the world, and swipe to try a new chat
at any time. Start your own broadcast, either by linking up with someone
you know, or Stereo will link you up
with another random user. - So, it's like a more interactive version
of live radio, as well as the perfect place
to meet your future soulmate? - And, it's the perfect place to get
more Map Men. We've done two shows already, with Mark and me having our first ever
non-scripted conversation. Stick around for a snippet from our broadcast
at the end of this video. - Well, I have always wanted to see
what the Map Men are really like. How do I listen? - Download the free Stereo app
onto your smartphone, then, on Monday, 15th February,
just before 6:30pm UK time, click the link in the description below
to join the show. - But, it's Thursday, 24th of January, 2086! - If you missed the live show, we've put a link in the description below,
where you can catch up and listen again. - Good. It'll be nice to relive the old days, when Mark and Jay were still alive. - So, download Stereo now and join
the massive worldwide conversation. - I will. But I wish you could have done an advert, rather than just telling me about it. [Jay] You and I sort of look, when it comes
to cartoons and distinguishing features, and, you know, descriptions
you'd give to the police, we look more or less the same. [Mark] Except you haven't got a massive nose.
Right. Next comment... - "Why does Mark's avatar look identical to him?
Like, it's literally a splitting image..." [Mark] That's interesting, isn't it?
- "But Jay, yours looks nothing like you." [Jay] Well, even though you've got a halo
and a monocle--which aren't there in real life, the actual shape of your face
and the shape of your hair, they've actually nailed you! [Jay] They've, you know, it's a really...
[Mark] They?! I was the one who spent the time
picking the correct features, Jay.
He was in India just to say, "Here, in India".
“Years later, while he was still dead”
Everyone else at the time rowdily disagreed with him. As 'at the time people' always do. <<<Love this.
Lmao. Lost my shit at “Here in Australia” as he drives in snow conditions. I’m sure most will understand how funny that is as barely any of our country ever experiences snow.
why do their eyebrows get bigger?
i assume it's a bit, but a strange one indeed. reminds me of this scene from scary movie 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkJSq_m2rqc
Plate tectonics wasn't accepted over night. A great example of this is the fact that Middle Earth almost certainly could not form as a result of natural continental drift. By the time the idea had been proposed, Tolkien had already graduated college and was busy fighting in WW1.
The one that isn't Beardyman's brother sounds a lot like David Mitchell
Why does plate tectonics seem like the kind of thing conservatives would randomly not believe in?
Where will the nine dash line be in this mock up ?