Amid growing concerns over the global warming issue, the future of the Atlantic Ocean seems to be at stake. Known for producing much of the world’s fish, the ocean separates the US and Europe, covering almost 17 per cent of Earth’s surface. A recent study done by a group of scientists in Portugal has revealed a worrying aspect about the Atlantic. The team, led by Joao Duarte, a professor in tectonics at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, has located a subduction zone which could potentially swallow the entire water body in the coming future.
Subduction zones mark the junctions on Earth where one crustal plate meets with another. According to a report by Unilad, the research has identified such a place in the Atlantic beneath the Gibraltar Strait between Spain and Morocco. Here, the African plate has been pushing below the Eurasian plate. They have confirmed that the process is “very very slow” at this moment and may take approximately 20 million years to come to its final position.
The study, however, has warned about the consequences of the occurrence. Joao Duarte and his colleagues have used computer modelling to predict the life and future of the subduction zone. As per the results of the technological assessment, when the African plate would have completely subducted below the Eurasian plate, the zone would start moving westwards.
It would have led to the birth of a new Atlantic subduction system named the “Ring of Fire.” The researchers believe the process has already begun below the Gibraltar Strait, which stretches about 125 miles. According to the prediction, the length could eventually breach the 500-mile mark in the next 20 million years and close up the Atlantic.
Discussing the topic with Mail Online, Profession Joao Duarte said, “We have good reason to think that the Atlantic is starting to close. Subduction zones are what cause the oceans to close, by pulling their ocean floor back into the mantle, bringing the continents together,” as quoted by Unilad.
The study, which has been published in the journal Geology, has also shed light on how a subduction zone can migrate into a new opening through a narrow oceanic corridor. The mechanism, however, is not quite unexpected in an ocean like the Atlantic, going parallel with the geological evolution of Earth.
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