Two continents are on a collision course which would reshape the planet

If you've seen a world map or travelled to Australia then you'll know just how far away it is from other continents - but this is slowly (very, very slowly) changing.

In fact, the continent is drifting at around 2.8 inches (7cm) per year which is comparable to the rate our fingernails grow.

Over time these tiny changes can amount to a large continental shift which will impact the climate and species ecosystem of the land mass.

Where is this continent moving towards?

Australia broke away from Antarctica around 80 million years ago and it's been moving ever since.

The direction the continent - which sits on the Indo-Australian plate - is moving in is north, meaning that eventually (way into the future, we're talking hundreds of millions of years) it will collide with Asia.

iStockphoto by Getty Images

“Whether we like it or not, the Australian continent is going to collide with Asia," Professor Zheng-Xiang Li of Curtin University said back in 2009 and has been a long-time scholar of this process.

The reason he gives for this occurrence is down to the cyclical pattern that occurs whereby the continents drift apart but then eventually reunite - this has happened over and over again on Earth in the past.

What could we see as a result of this?

Some of the impacts of this could be an increase in seismic activity, meaning more earthquakes.

This tectonic shift may also result in a change of landscape - as seen previously when Australia entered topical waters resulting in the Great Barrier Reef being formed thanks to the ideal conditions for coral.

Since Australia is so far from other countries, it has some unique wildlife not seen anywhere else such as kangaroos, koalas and wombats - what could happen to them?

When the continent collides with Asia it would mean these species would compete against Asian mammals, in what would be survival of the fittest as to who can adapt to the new environment while some may sadly go extinct as a result.

How is this continental drift already causing problems?

This move northwards is already having an impact as back in 2016 it was discovered by experts that due to the movement of the continent, Australia's GPS system was off by 1.5 meters (4.9 feet).

To fix this issue and ensure GPS systems were accurate, the official coordinates of Australia had to be tweaked by 1.8 meters (5.9 feet).

As the continent continues to shift north, this will no doubt be something scientists will have to keep an eye on as having the wrong GPS coordinate could impact navigation systems, satellites, aviation, and autonomous vehicles.

While Australians today and many generations in the future won't see this collision with Asia themselves, the small impacts of these tiny movements are clear to see.

Elsewhere, Earth has six continents, not seven, radical new study claims, and scientists have just discovered a brand new continent.

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