Blog 4 - Die Entscheidung (The Judgement)

Tectonic map of plates surrounding the Mediterranean basin at present

We have seen over the semester the power of nature to constantly transform itself and the part humans have played in this especially in the last 10 millennia. Now we will look toward the future and try to predict the future transformations in our particular region of the study, the Rhine-Main basin. Tectonics, volcanism, glacial movements, erosion, and most recently, anthropomorphic "improvements" have all worked together to shape the Rhine-Main basin we see today. Our planet is a living and dynamic one geologically and will be so for a long time yet in human terms, By looking back at the previous trends we have covered, we will be able guess at the future shape of the land, of course excluding any dramatic extraterrestrial events such as asteroid impacts. 

Europe after the last glacial period

10,000 years from now... 

Tectonicly, not much will have changed yet as the movement of the plate is a slow process from a human point of view. We also supposedly aren't due to enter another glacial period for at least another 25,000 years. Yet it is important to remember that these are not the only methods by which our geography can change. 10,000 years ago as Europe emerged from the grips of the last glacial period, the banks of the Rhine were covered with forests of coniferous trees which have since shifted northward to Scandinavia as the climate changed along with various animals that either went extinct or also moved North.

The shape of the rivers themselves will be very dependent upon if we are still living around and using it. 10,000 years ago, the humans that lived in the area had no control over them, but, as we covered in Blog 2, we have gained control by daming, canals, dredging, and straighten the rivers to suit our needs. If humans are still living a "civilized" life in the area and metropolises like Frankfurt-am-Main still exists this situation will continue, but if not the rivers will soon brake out of their man-made restrictions. The Rhine would return to its previous slow moving,winding courses and the basin would become again a marshy alluvial plain much as it was just 200 years ago.

1,000,000 years from now...

Our grandest monuments, except perhaps for the Pyramids or Mt. Rushmore, will have eroded into dust. All glass created up today will have dissolved and anyone watching the skies will see Betelgeuse go supernova for the last time. The world by this will be in the grip of another glacial period and Europe and our region will be again covered by advancing ice. The fertile hills, picturesque river valleys, and the remnant of our urban edifices (if still extant) will be ground to powder under the mile-thick sheet. Any land not covered by the ice sheet will be an arid, wind blown tundra, a Siberia moved westwards in other words.

100,000,000 years from now...

 Dr. Christopher Scotese's map of the global 150,000,000 years from now based on likely tectonic movements

Now we return to tectonics. The world now will look very different on the global scale. The Alpine orogeny will come to its destined acme 50,000,000 years before this, pushing Africa into the Eurasian plate. This will not only forever erase the Mediterranean basin but also create a new mountain chain to rival the Himalayas height and grandeur. This new combined continent will be further north than previously perhaps permanently placing the region in the sub-polar zone (if wobble of the Earth's orbit is even still the same by this point).

The Rhine may again exist but the Main might not. The movements of the glaciers previously could fill in its course. Meanwhile the Rhine will follow northward out of this new mountain range towards a new mouth and a new Arctic Ocean through a changed landscape. There in its middle course where great cities, old castles, and vineyards once stood will be a flattened plain, steppe lands covered in wild grass and devoid of trees. The land will still bear the scares of the glacial era in the form of the lakes and hills of fill material left behind after the ice melted. It will be a new world in its appearance,  a strange land likely devoid of humans and their works, but the processes shaping its geography that we have learned about this semester will still be the same.

References
Continents in Collision: Pangea Ultima - http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast06oct_1/
Paleomap Project-Dr. Christopher Scotese - http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine#Geologic_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_orogeny
Timeline of the far future - http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140105-timeline-of-the-far-future