The Earth's crust is doing something pretty intense—it’s slowly breaking apart! Scientists say tectonic plates, those massive puzzle pieces that make up our planet’s surface, are shifting and cracking more than ever. This could mean a big change in how continents and oceans are shaped over millions of years. It’s like the Earth is gearing up for a whole new chapter. Don’t worry, though—this isn’t an overnight thing, so no sudden sinkholes or new oceans tomorrow. Still, it’s wild to think about how the ground beneath us is always moving, shaping the planet’s future bit by bit. Credit:
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/:
Cratons NL: by Ciaurlec, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cratons_NL.svg
Tectonic Plates: by LasquetiSpice, https://skfb.ly/o9FWE
New Zealand: by Matthews, K. J., Maloney, K. T., Zahirovic, S., Williams, S. E., Seton, M., and Müller, R. D., Müller, R.D., Seton, M., Zahirovic, S., Williams, S.E., Matthews, K.J., Wright, N.M., Shephard, G.E., Maloney, K.T., Barnett-Moore, N., Hosseinpour, M., Bower, D.J. & Cannon, J., CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:30_ma_New_Zealand_Zealandia.png
Gondwana: by Fama Clamosa, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, CC BY-SA 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gondwana_420_Ma.png
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CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/:
Cratons NL: by Ciaurlec, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cratons_NL.svg
Tectonic Plates: by LasquetiSpice, https://skfb.ly/o9FWE
New Zealand: by Matthews, K. J., Maloney, K. T., Zahirovic, S., Williams, S. E., Seton, M., and Müller, R. D., Müller, R.D., Seton, M., Zahirovic, S., Williams, S.E., Matthews, K.J., Wright, N.M., Shephard, G.E., Maloney, K.T., Barnett-Moore, N., Hosseinpour, M., Bower, D.J. & Cannon, J., CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:30_ma_New_Zealand_Zealandia.png
Gondwana: by Fama Clamosa, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, CC BY-SA 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gondwana_420_Ma.png
Sense From Nonsense / YouTube
Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
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https://www.shutterstock.com
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For more videos and articles visit:
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00It's been there for over 3 billion years, but now some of the Earth's oldest crust
00:06is falling apart.
00:08Today, our continents seem stuck in place.
00:11But over a long, long time, they've moved and shifted around a lot.
00:15It's all thanks to tectonic activity, which makes part of Earth's surface slowly slide
00:21around like pieces of a giant puzzle.
00:23Some of the most stable parts of these puzzle pieces are called cratons.
00:28Cratons are super old and strong sections of rock that form the roots of continents
00:32and keep them together.
00:34The North American Craton is one of them.
00:36It makes up a big part of the United States, about half of Canada, and most of Greenland.
00:43Scientists have singled out about 35 of these big ancient cratons around the world.
00:49They've mostly stayed in the same place for hundreds of millions of years because of how
00:53strong they are.
00:55In 2014, they discovered that cratons might not be as indestructible as they thought.
01:01Some cratons had lost parts of their strong roots because of certain geologic processes
01:05and became thinner.
01:07It looks like cratons could become less stable if they go through more tectonic changes.
01:14In 2024, scientists at China University of Geosciences analyzed an ancient landmass called
01:21the North China Craton, or NCC for short.
01:24They wanted to learn more about how some of Earth's oldest rock regions can break apart.
01:30This process of cratons disintegrating is called decratonization.
01:34The NCC is so interesting to study because it has three main parts – the Western Block,
01:40the Eastern Block, and the Trans-North China Orogen, a zone that lies between the two blocks.
01:47Scientists found that during the Mesozoic era, the Eastern Block lost its deep ancient
01:51roots because of the strong Earth movements called tectonomagmatic events.
01:56So scientists wanted to see exactly how the processes in the mantle and the movements
02:01of Earth's plates led to the breaking down of the NCC.
02:05They created 4D models showing how the NCC's shape changed over time, including its surface
02:11shape, how its layers stretched, and the way earthquake waves moved through it.
02:16They found that a section of the tectonic plate slid beneath the craton and then began
02:21to roll back.
02:22This rolling and stretching made the strong rock thin out and eventually lose stability.
02:28All this started around 200 million years ago, back during the Jurassic period, when
02:33dinosaurs were rocking the world.
02:36The North China Craton isn't the only place where this decratonization process can happen.
02:42Other cratons, like those in North America, South America, and China's Yangtze region,
02:47may have gone through similar changes.
02:50Scientists say this shows how the continents on Earth have slowly changed and evolved over
02:54billions of years.
02:56And it looks like, when it comes to geology, there's no place that is 100% safe from
03:01changes.
03:02But it's no cause for alarm.
03:06You don't notice this, but our planet never stops moving and is perfectly normal.
03:11But sometimes, this movement still brings dramatic changes.
03:15In 2017, scientists made an official announcement that Zealandia can be called a new continent.
03:21The continental shelves of this mysterious continent are lying at a depth of around 3,280
03:28feet below sea level.
03:30The nearest oceanic crust dives even deeper, at 9,800 feet below that.
03:36Geologists have gone deep down to collect rocks from the ocean floor.
03:40They've found that, unlike the nearby oceanic crust, which is made up of fresh basaltic
03:45rocks, the crust around New Zealand is a mix of ancient granite, limestone, and sandstone.
03:51All this screams continental crust.
03:53Plus, scientists have discovered a narrow strip of oceanic crust that separates Australia
03:59from the hidden land of Zealandia.
04:01It means these two are separate continents.
04:0485 million years ago, Zealandia decided to break free from the supercontinent Gondwana.
04:11Millions of years later, the mighty Pacific Plate, the heavyweight champion of tectonic
04:15plates, decided to take a dive beneath Zealandia's continental crust.
04:20And that's how the root of Zealandia, that connection to its continental crust, broke
04:25off and went into the depths below.
04:28And that's not all the tectonic news from this part of the world.
04:31120 million years ago, Australia and Antarctica were a single piece of land.
04:37They went their separate ways, but Antarctica didn't leave empty-handed.
04:41Today, there's an oceanic plateau in the Indian Ocean.
04:46Long ago, it was connected to another lost continent, the Kurgulian microcontinent.
04:52Scientists believe that it made a land bridge between India and Antarctica.
04:56To find out what it was like, we can look at a tiny archipelago in the southern Indian
05:01Ocean.
05:02These islands are all that is left of the ancient landmass.
05:05They have a cold climate and feature glaciers because they're so close to Antarctica.
05:10But in the past, the weather here must've been temperate with plenty of rainfall.
05:15The animals and plants would've been similar to those that live in tropical regions today.
05:21Another lost and found continent isn't hiding in the ocean, but under Europe.
05:26It's called Greater Adria, and it collided with Europe and started to sink under it around
05:31100 million years ago.
05:33Today, it lies beneath Italy, Greece, and the Balkans.
05:36Its size and even shape match that of Greenland, the world's largest island.
05:42Greater Adria is no longer visible, but it left some clues.
05:46Part of it was embedded in the Alps.
05:48The other chunks are part of present-day Italy and Croatia, on the other side of the Adriatic
05:54Sea.
05:55Limestone rocks from the former continent started to change once they were under the
05:59European landmass.
06:01Great heat and pressure spread over tens of millions of years changed their structure.
06:06And that's when the limestone left the chat, and the marble took its place.
06:11Greater Adria wasn't a solid piece of land like the big continent we see today, but more
06:16like a giant shallow shelf underwater.
06:19Over time, sand, mud, and other stuff settled on this shelf and slowly turned into rock.
06:25Greater Adria might have been a little like Zealandia or the Florida Keys, a chain of
06:30small islands sitting in a shallow sea.
06:33Above the water, there were probably lots of little islands and archipelagos.
06:37And beneath the waves, there were colorful coral reefs filled with marine life.
06:42If you lived back then and had a scuba tank, it would've been an amazing place to dive
06:47and explore.
06:49So with all the things going on with the Cratons, who knows?
06:53We could see a new continent in the future.
06:56Plus, studying the Earth's crust even deeper can change history as we know it.
07:02Scientists in Copenhagen have made an amazing discovery about the real birthplace of Scandinavia.
07:07And it's not where we thought.
07:09After studying sand and rock from remote parts of Finland, they found out that Scandinavia's
07:14roots actually came from Greenland over 3.75 billion years ago.
07:20This means the area where Nordic countries are now is 250 million years older than the
07:26scientists had previously believed.
07:28And we now know thanks to the tiny crystals called zircons found in Finnish river sands.
07:35When scientists looked closely at their chemical makeup, they realized the age of crystals
07:39matched the rocks found in Greenland, not Scandinavia.
07:43They used special techniques to analyze elements like uranium, lead, luteum, and hafnium and
07:49discovered that Scandinavia's rocky base most likely broke off from Greenland billions
07:54of years ago.
07:55A small seed of land probably started drifting across the Earth's surface over hundreds
08:00of millions of years.
08:02This piece eventually settled where Finland is today.
08:06Over time, new layers of rock formed around this seed and slowly turned into the Scandinavia
08:11we see on maps now.
08:14The same study could help us rethink how the continents on Earth first formed.
08:19The most accepted theory is that the continental crust began growing right when the planet
08:24was formed.
08:25But new studies show that the signs of continents only started growing a billion years later.
08:32The scientists explained that Earth's continents may have begun as tiny seeds of ancient crust
08:37in different places.
08:38These seeds grew over time, forming the landmasses we know today.
08:43These ancient seeds aren't just found in Scandinavia, but also in Australia, South
08:47Africa, and India.
08:50Scientists aren't sure if all these seeds came from the same place, or if they grew
08:54separately in different parts of the world.
08:56So there's still a lot to learn, and scientists need to keep digging to figure out if all
09:01these ancient seeds are related to each other.
09:05That's it for today!
09:06But – hey! – if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with
09:10your friends.
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