Scientists from the University of Utrecht have developed the Paleolatitude tool, an interactive map that traces the movement of Earth's tectonic plates from the supercontinent Pangea to the present day. The model offers unprecedented detail, showing how regions like London and Sri Lanka have shifted dramatically over millions of years. Researchers used magnetic traces in rocks and geological reconstructions to create the most comprehensive map of Earth's geological history, shedding light on ancient climates and biodiversity.
If you've ever wondered what your hometown might have been like during the time of the dinosaurs, scientists finally have an answer. Researchers from the University of Utrecht have created a new tool that charts how Earth's continents have shifted over the last 320 million years.
The tool, dubbed Paleolatitude, is based on the Utrecht Paleogeology Model—the most complex and detailed map of our planet's geological history. Simply select a location, and wind back the millennia to see its journey all the way from the ancient supercontinent of Pangea. After dropping a pin on the map, you will see a graph that shows how the tectonic plate beneath that location moved over the last 320 million years.
The graph reveals what latitude the tectonic plate would have been found at over various points in the distant past. For example, the rocks beneath London would have been found at 6°S 320 million years ago, placing the UK capital just south of the equator.
Meanwhile, sub-tropical Sri Lanka would have once been found in the freezing waters of modern-day Antarctica. The map reveals how the rocks that make up the UK have made an astonishing journey to reach their current location.
Lead author Professor Douwe van Hinsbergen says: 'Triassic rocks of about 250 million years old, in England and the Netherlands, tell us that we were in a desert environment, and that there were shallow, tropical seas: a climate very much like Arabia and the Persian Gulf today. But does that mean that the global climate was much hotter? Or were England and the Netherlands located at the same latitude as the Persian Gulf and Arabia today?
If you click on a location in England, you'll find that we were at 20–30°N—the same as Arabia today—around 250 million years ago, explaining the desert sediments.
' The Paleolatitude tool isn't the first time geologists have tried to model Earth's complex evolution, but it is the most detailed. This is because scientists have managed to reconstruct the hidden movements of mountain ranges, tectonic plates, and hidden continents. Hidden continents, such as Greater Adria, the Tethys Himalayas or Argoland, have left behind traces in the folded mountain ranges of Nepal and Spain but have otherwise vanished.
Professor van Hinsbergen and his colleagues were able to recreate the plates' movements by 'unfolding' the rock inside these mountains and laying them out side-by-side. Scientists have created an incredible interactive map that allows you to find where your home was in the time of the dinosaurs. They then looked at magnetic traces left behind in the rock itself to see how it had shifted over the years.
Co-author Dr Bram Vaes, of the CEREGE research institute, says: 'The angle formed by the Earth's magnetic field and the Earth's surface changes gradually from the poles towards the equator and is therefore linked to latitude. Many rocks contain magnetic minerals that 'recorded' the direction of the magnetic field at that location when the rock was formed. So, using this, we can determine at what latitude such a rock was formed.
' By combining these two approaches, the researchers were able to create a model that traces every rock on Earth on its journey from Pangea to the modern day. For example, the Paleolatitude map shows that India has undergone the biggest changes of any region in the last 320 million years. For most of its history, the northeast of India was around 60°S, which would place it right next to Antarctica today.
But between 65 and 45 million years ago, the region started racing northwards at about 20 cm per year, which Professor van Hinsbergen calls 'rocket speed for a geologist'. The Caribbean, meanwhile, has remained at roughly the same tropical latitude for the last 150 million years. Over 300 million years ago, Earth's tectonic plates were collected in a supercontinent called Pangea. On this map, you can see the historic location of the Netherlands highlighted in pink.
India has seen the most dramatic movement, racing from a latitude near Antarctica to its current position at 'rocket speed'. Join the discussion: Would YOU live in your hometown if it were still in its dinosaur-era location? What's your view?
'That's the world's oldest holiday resort,' says Professor van Hinsbergen. Besides revealing these fascinating geological histories, the Paleolatitude model is helping scientists understand the history of Earth's ecology and climate. Sedimentary rocks and fossils can help researchers work out what an area was like in the past, but this doesn't tell them very much if they don't know where it was.
Co-author Dr Emilia Jarochowska, a palaeontologist at Utrecht University, told the Daily Mail: 'Two big processes explain global biodiversity: Connectivity—how organisms migrate and spread—and the amount of available energy.
Paleolatitude Tectonic Plates Pangea Geological History Climate Change
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