It’s been estimated that in all of Earth’s history, there have been 7 supercontinents, with the most recent one being Pangaea.
The next supercontinent (Pangaea Ultima) is expected to form in around 250 million years.
Why is this the case? What phenomenon causes these giant landmasses to coalesce, break apart, then coalesce again?
In: 1126
Think about the earth as a sphere from molten stone,
where hot molten material from the depth raises to the surface,
this convection pushes the floating continents away,
on a sphere where the floating pieces
are much smaller than the surface of the sphere,
this pieces are moved to each other,
because the convection force between them is lower that the force around them,
than the supercontinent is build.
Next now the force still presses around this supercontinent,
but it is formed from pieces and so on piece is forcly moved pressed under an other,
thing like the alps or the himalaya happens,
and things like the mariana trench as the opposite,
this forces than build up to break everything apart again
and so the circle continuous.
I hope i did it but this is hardcore in ELI5.
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