What If Pangea Never Broke Apart?

WHAT IF

Where on Earth would you be if the Pangea supercontinent never broke appart?

Transcript

00:00 Millions of years ago,

00:02 the Earth looked very different.

00:06 A huge landmass called Pangaea

00:09 covered about a third of our planet.

00:13 But about 175 million years ago,

00:16 the Earth broke up into continents

00:19 and formed the world we know today.

00:23 What if that had never happened?

00:28 Where would your country be located?

00:32 And how different would your life be?

00:35 This is WHAT IF,

00:37 and here's what would happen

00:39 if Pangaea had never broken apart.

00:42 If Pangaea existed today,

00:45 in theory, you could drive from California to England,

00:49 since they'd both be part of the same landmass.

00:53 And although you may only think of Pangaea

00:55 as just another piece of land,

00:58 it would be much more than that.

01:01 It's played an integral part

01:02 in human and animal evolution.

01:05 If Pangaea had not broken apart,

01:08 you may not be here today.

01:10 But let's assume it didn't,

01:12 and that we survived and evolved

01:14 to be the people we are today.

01:16 First, let's talk about where your country would be located.

01:23 North America would be right here.

01:26 Europe would be a lot closer,

01:28 just to the east.

01:30 Asia would be up north, by Russia,

01:32 and Antarctica would remain down south.

01:35 India and Australia would be further south,

01:38 connected to Antarctica.

01:40 These countries that used to have hot climates

01:43 would now be cold,

01:44 covered with snow and ice.

01:47 And those wouldn't be the only environmental changes.

01:50 Regions in the middle of Pangaea

01:52 would have lush rainforests along their borders.

01:55 And as you travel further inland,

01:58 it would become a desert.

02:00 This would be due to Pangaea's landmass being so large.

02:04 Rain, which comes from the ocean,

02:06 wouldn't be able to travel far enough inland,

02:09 leaving parts of Pangaea practically uninhabitable

02:12 by humans and other species.

02:16 And weather up north would be different too,

02:18 with Russia being much warmer than it is today.

02:22 But the weather wouldn't be the only thing that would change.

02:25 On Pangaea, we might have less diversity of species.

02:29 The species at the top of the food chain today

02:32 would most likely remain there,

02:33 but some of today's animals would not exist in Pangaea.

02:37 They wouldn't have the chance to evolve.

02:40 Fewer animals might make it easier to travel.

02:43 And on this modern version of Pangaea,

02:46 you'd probably want to do a lot of it.

02:48 Luckily, you wouldn't have to go far.

02:50 If you lived in Florida,

02:52 you'd be right next to the Caribbean islands,

02:54 Venezuela, and Brazil.

02:56 You could visit all of these in a single day.

02:59 And if you lived in Nova Scotia, Canada,

03:02 you'd be driving distance from France,

03:04 England, and Germany.

03:06 Although this might sound like fun,

03:08 a lot of countries would have new neighbors,

03:10 which could cause some serious issues for some.

03:14 Places like the United States,

03:15 which used to have oceans on both sides of the country,

03:18 would now have Africa on its east coast.

03:22 If these countries didn't get along,

03:24 things could get ugly.

03:26 How much easier would it be

03:27 to start a war in another country

03:29 if they were just a short drive away?

03:31 Transporting weapons, people, and supplies

03:34 would all be faster and cheaper

03:36 if certain countries were right next to each other.

03:39 Or none of this would happen,

03:41 and the entire world would be more unified than ever.

03:44 With all of us sharing the same landmass,

03:47 maybe we'd learn to treat each other

03:49 just a bit better than what we do now.

03:51 Maybe if we all lived in one country,

03:54 something like this would happen.

03:56 But we'll leave that story for another WHAT IF.

04:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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