Continental Drift

[Randy]

Continental Drift and Your Hometown

This is an interactive map that shows where any city in the world was during the continental drift going back 750 million years. Here's a blurb about it from CNN.

CNN)A California paleontologist has created an interactive map that allows people to see how far their hometowns have moved over 750 million years of continental drift.
The online map, designed by Ian Webster, features a range of tools that also make it easy to discover more about the Earth, such as where the first reptiles lived or when the first flower bloomed.
"It shows that our environment is dynamic and can change," Webster, 30, told CNN. "The history of Earth is longer than we can conceive, and the current arrangement of plate tectonics and continents is an accident of time. It will be very different in the future, and Earth may outlast us all."

The full article is here: This map lets you see where your hometown was on the Earth millions of years ago

[Tank]

That was fun!

[No one]

Bring back memories, Tank?

[Sandra Craft]

That is so cool!

[xSilverPhinx]

Awesome! 

[Icarus]

Damn!  I was underwater 20 million years ago. 

[Recusant]

Thanks for posting that, Randy.  It was entertaining, though I would have appreciated some indication of where the north and south poles are as things move around. When I looked at Melbourne, Australia for instance, it looked to me as if at one point it was relatively near the South Pole, which was under an ice cap. However, the globe seems to rotate to put the location more or less in the center of the image.

I did enjoy just rolling back the years (use the ← and → keys on the keyboard for quick results) and observing the changes without putting in a location. In that mode the globe slowly rotates and you get a view of the whole thing.

[Tank]

Bring back memories, Tank?

Yes I used to live 4" West of here. Those were the days!

[Randy]

Bring back memories, Tank?

Yes I used to live 4" West of here. Those were the days!

It wouldn't show much for the last 50 plus years I've been around. I could have lived four inches away I suppose.

I just looked up the speed at which the continents are moving. From what I understand they are moving anywhere between 10 to 160 mm / year. Not very fast at all. 160 mm / year (or 6.3 inches) is about how long it takes for hair to grow from what I've read although my hair is growing pretty fast.

In January I was bald from chemotherapy and then got allergic to it so we stopped one of the drugs. My hair has been growing ever since. I need my hair trimmed now. I don't know if it is close to six inches yet though.

I live on the North American continent although I don't know how fast it is moving. I could research it some more I suppose.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

My town - Belton, Texas - over the past 750,000,000 years has sometimes been under water, sometimes above water. Sort of like my life.  Right now I and my town are both above water, but if too many more hurricanes come around here it might change. In 50 years historic towns like Galveston, Texas and the best beaches like South Padre Island, Texas may all be under water, victims of the rising tide.  Lack of action on climate change could supersede the imperceptibly slow movement of land masses, if you catch my continental drift.