• veroxii@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    6 months ago

    For now. It used to a few million years ago and will again in another few million.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Are you referring to the magnetic pole switch? That happens every 200-1M years, according to patterns on the seafloor. It’s been estimated that the last reversal was 780,000 years ago, so it theoretically could be any day now.

      With that being said, I doubt that humanity will agree to turn all maps 180° to correspond.

      • pacmondo@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        6 months ago

        I thought they were referring to the fact that under the ice its an archipelago, so if the ice melts it will have southern coasts again

        • fishos@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          If it melts, they’d all be northern coasts.

          It’s referencing the pole swap.

          • The_Lorax@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            6 months ago

            Since it’s an archipelago underneath then most, if not all, of those islands would have a southern coast. The only way to not have a southern coast is to have the landmass directly on top of the pole, which could only happen for one island (if no ice is present)

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              6 months ago

              To move a continent north of the equator at the rate of 1 CM per year? You might need a bigger napkin.

              Antarctica’s leading coast is 10,000 KM from the equator. Assuming it’s able to continue through Southern Africa at the same rate, it would take 100 billion years to have a northern coast.

              • fogstormberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                6 months ago

                southern or northern coast. I had deleted my comment already because I misread yours, but I had mathed the time to move away from the pole, producing a southern coast. not time to cross the equator

                • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  6 months ago

                  You’re right, that would create a northern coast. That would be closer to 300M years, assuming it can continue to move at the rate of 1 CM/year, straight through Africa. Antarctica is ~4,500 KM across. The leading coast is only 1,287 KM from the South Pole, leaving 3,213 KM of land needed to migrate from the Pacific side. That would take 321,300,000 years.

      • veroxii@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        6 months ago

        I was referring to continental drift. Places move a lot in under 200 million years. Eg https://youtu.be/uLahVJNnoZ4

        So my post was a bit sarcastic that eventually it will have a coast but not on any time frame to matter to the human species. :)

      • fossilesque@mander.xyzOPM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Laschamp event! I just edited a related wiki page on late Pleistocene extinctions. Spoiler alert: it didn’t kill the megafauna.