Perspective of continental Europe - America clashes

Geologists are paying attention to a new submerged ditch that lies off the coast of Portugal, slowly absorbing Europe towards the New World.

>>>Found "lost" tectonic plate

If Christopher Columbus waited for more . a few hundred million years, he would have been able to set foot on the New World by walking rather than crossing the hardships of the 16th century.

Image of the seabed under the Atlantic Ocean - (Photo: NOAA / NGDC)

This is because geological forces are drawing Europe towards the Americas, with the completion of the encounter between the two continents estimated at 220 million years from now.

According to a report published in the journal Geology, the team of researchers led by Monash University (Australia) said that the first signs of a close link between the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean were found, below. form of a submerged suction zone 'in the infancy stage' off the coast of Portugal.

The subduction zone forms when a tectonic plate begins to slide under another plate.

Geologists, who are mapping the seabed, find that the area is starting to break, or that the submerged zone may be a sign of the beginning of a new phase of Wilson Cycle .

Named after Canadian geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson, Wilson's Cycle shows a series of events related to cyclical openness and closure over millions of years.

The breakdown and regeneration of continents in the world have occurred at least three times in the history of the globe.

The clash between tectonic plates, which is still very young by geological time, may have triggered a massive quake in Lisbon in 1755, estimated to have killed about 60,000 people, crippling the capital. of Portugal but also marks the birth of modern seismic science.