And that's only the half of it. Our planet has slowly changed over time, the broken-up continents of today previously all part of a single landmass called Pangaea. Like, 300 million years ago. And then it began to break apart after about 100 million years, each of its component parts floating away across the oceans before settling and existing as a bunch of different places instead of one huge one in the middle of an enormous sea. We're not going to be getting another Pangaea anytime soon, but about 80 million years in our future the differences as to how the planet looks are going to continue abreast following the splitting of Africa and the formation of a new ocean. Namely, Hawaii is going to sink off the map. Or, more accurately, between the rising tides, volcanoes and ice age, it would already have mostly disappeared beneath the waves, and at this point the Big Island was the only one remaining. The Californian coast would have begun crumbling into the ocean, too, thanks to its sitting on the San Andreas fault. Africa will have continued to sail off from itself and crash into Europe and Asia, closing the Mediterranean Basin and creating a mountain range similar to the Himalayas. Which is good timing, since we'll have just lost the Canadian Rockies and Appalachian Mountains to the same erosion that claimed the Grand Canyon. One positive to all this is it'll be about the time that the Earth will have naturally replenished its fossil fuel reserves! There just won't be anyone - or anywhere - to use them.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
