Continental Europe and America could be joined in 220 million years.
A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America.
Published in Geology](http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2013/06/05/G34100.1.full.pdf+html), new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic ocean is becoming active. Subduction zones, such as the one beginning near Iberia, are areas where one of the tectonic plates that cover the Earth’s surface dives beneath another plate into the mantle - the layer just below the crust.
Lead author Dr João Duarte, from the School of Geosciences said the team mapped the ocean floor and found it was beginning to fracture, indicating tectonic activity around the apparently passive South West Iberia plate margin.
“What we have detected is the very beginnings of an active margin - it’s like an embryonic subduction zone,” Dr Duarte said.
Source : New ‘embryonic’ subduction zone found, Monash University
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so true…but how are you gonna manage to live that long?