The world if Africa didn't exist

SagXD@lemm.ee to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 269 points –
31

Fun fact: The ecosystems of the Amazon Basin rely on around 27.7 million tons of Saharan Dust each year to replace the phosphorus that is washed away by the rains. Without this constant input the local soils would have been stripped of needed nutrients and would be unable to support the plants that currently thrive there.

The Amazon rainforest survived the African Humid Period though, so what's up with that?

It looks like the Amazon region was experiencing less rainfall at the time with a corresponding shift towards drought tolerant species with parts of the region as savannahs !!

https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/2567

With a different rainfall profile the nutrient loss would have been vastly reduced.

would be greener on the continents with ice reaching further down because without africa there would be no humans and with no humans there would be no greenhouse emissions and global temperatures would be notably cooler.

Antactica where?

r/mapswithoutnewzealand

Sea level would be considerably lower, as it would suddenly have a big ass Africa-sized hole to fill.

Unless the land didn't simply disappear but redistributed, raising the ocean floor throughout the Atlantic.

The ultimate solution to sea level rise due to climate change

Im cutious how much lower the ocean's water level would be t fill in for the missing land because thats a lot of cubic volume and what impact that might have on further revealing existing land due to the lower water levels

It would be far different if the land mass of Africa had never existed. The whole tectonic movement would have resulted in different arrangements several supercontinents ago, with their own effects on climate and life itself.

But if Africa just blipped off one day, maybe. Then you have to explore what a sudden loss of land would do to the ocean waters rushing in, the change in Earth rotation due to its mass being shifted, lots of other things.

🎶 It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you 🎶

🎵 There's nothin' that a hundred men or more could ever do 🎵

🎶 I bless the rains in South America 🎶

In our current global political and racial environment ...... Africa exists?

If you showed a bunch of people this map, almost no one would even notice. Only the guy who listens to Die Antwoord would be sad.