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?
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The tectonic plates are moving around all the time. They’re pretty big, so they bump into each other a lot, if you wait long enough.
Whether they happen to form a supercontinent isn’t really significant except for our perception. The entire surface of the planet is covered in tectonic plates, we only think the ones that poke up higher than sea level are important because we can live on them. When the land is connected, we notice. When the land isn’t connected, we notice. There’s no geological reason to prefer either configuration, as far as I know
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