Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology => Topic started by: neilep on 23/08/2005 21:01:48
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Dearest Land knowing people !
Why is the majority of the land north of the equator ?...I just pondered whilst looking at my globe...which is nice !
Thanks
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I don't think there really has to be a reason, the continents move around quite a lot over geological time at some points there must be more continets in one hemisphere than the other...
It is conceivable that there is some climatalogical reason why intelligent life is more likely to develop when there are significantly more continents in one hemisphere than the other... but i think it is more likely just fluke.
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Thanks Dave.....just happenstance it is then !!...I just figured looking at my globe that there may well be a more fundamental reason.......I know over the aeons that the plates have moved, but I thought that there may be an underlying condition that has made them move in that particular way.
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i wonder if the tilt of the earth has any thing to do with it perhaps some sort of centrifical bias that encourages the heavier solids of the land masses to migrate north possible?
Giggidy Giggidy Goo
The philosopher Q man
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I think all the land end up on the equator in that case, the tilt doesn't affect the axis of rotation wrt the Earth.
Or did you mean solar tidal effects? I hope not, you get all kinds of complicated stuff like precession, perihelions (sp?) and worse :-(
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I think its just a case of all that land mass wanting to be close to our wonderful country,so it moved here.
every village has one !
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quote:
Originally posted by daveshorts
It is conceivable that there is some climatalogical reason why intelligent life is more likely to develop when there are significantly more continents in one hemisphere than the other... but i think it is more likely just fluke.
Having an isolated land mass sitting atop Antarctica, surrounded by a lot of water, does help keep the Earth unusually cool. For much of its history, the Earth has been much warmer than it is now. Whether intelligent life could have developed in a warmer climate is something we can only speculate upon (certainly, all those doom mongers who claim that global warming will kill us all will probably suggest we cannot survive in anything warmer than we have today).
Since an isolated Antarctica requires that there be a lot of ocean surrounding it, it follows that one would expect less land overall in the southern hemisphere.
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i wonder if the tilt of the earth has any thing to do with it perhaps some sort of centrifical bias that encourages the heavier solids of the land masses to migrate north possible?
Giggidy Giggidy Goo
The philosopher Q man
I had an idea recently that would be related to this. When it is winter in the northern hemisphere the Earth is at it's closest to the Sun. 'Why is it not hotter then?' I hear you cry! Well, because the Earth's tilt means the large water mass of the southern hemisphere is reflecting most of the heat back into space. My idea was that the Sun may have a slightly greater gravitational effect on the water mass during this period of the year, pulling the waters into the southern hemisphere and forcing the land mass away into the northern hemisphere.
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Hi, rammar, welcome.
My idea was that the Sun may have a slightly greater gravitational effect on the water mass during this period of the year, pulling the waters into the southern hemisphere and forcing the land mass away into the northern hemisphere.
I think there is no way that a bit of extra tidal bulge in the southern oceans would cause a northward migration of the continents. You are probably aware that the continents move becaust the tectonic plates on which they sit are moving; so the causes are much more deep-seated than oceanic tidal variations.
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Geologists think that nearly all the land mass was on one hemisphere on around 6 occasions in the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent#History
However, it's not clear whether this was a north/south hemisphere or an East/West hemisphere...
The same article speculates that the spread of the Atlantic ocean will reverse, bringing Europe, Africa & the Americas together again... (but don't hold your breath!)