The Grand Canyon has a twinned , only it lives on the other side of the macrocosm . That is according to a paper recently write in the journalGeology .
geologist at Monash University in Melbourne were queer about a series of sway formations in Tasmania , Australia , that looked suspiciously standardised to those in the Grand Canyon , Arizona in the US – according to study writer , Jack Mulder , the rocks have always looked a lilliputian out of place .
Now , chemical testing has confirmed it is a match . The couple each bear mineral with identical geochemical fingerprints .
The squad establish their conclusion on the rocks ' like stratigraphy , depositional age , and detrital zircon U - Pb age statistical distribution and Hf isotope writing . The results suggest these ancient rock organization were once one and the same – and that could have major geologic implication .
" We concluded that although it ’s now on the opposite side of the planet , Tasmania must have been tie to the western United States , " Mulder toldNew Scientist .
Today , the satellite is split into seven continents but this was n’t always the case – and it wo n’t quell this way forever . Scientists think the next clip all seven Continent re - join will be in the next 50 million to 200 million years and they have already named this supercontinentAmasia .
There have been several supercontinents in Earth ’s history , the most famous ( and most late ) beingPangea . But before that , 1.3 billion to 750 million years ago , there was Rodinia .
Rodinia break up into smaller continent C of trillion of years ago , coinciding with a stop of extreme spheric cooling that probablywasn’t all that coincidental . But figuring out how exactly today ’s continents could match together to spring a Rodinia - similar landmass has proved to be a challenge .
The Grand Canyon ’s Gemini could aid work out a minor while of that puzzle , providing evidence that 1.1 billion years ago , modern - day Australia and the westerly coast of North America were attached .
Alan Collins , a professor of earth sciences at the University of Adelaide , Australia , has gone as far as to tellNew Scientistthe paper shows Tasmania " hold the key " to stitch together the architectonic geographics of the time , tell it could facilitate future geologists build full dental plate modeling of ancient Earth .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
