Science Daily- 6/18/13.
A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America.
The incipient subduction in the Iberian zone could signal the start of a new phase of the Wilson Cycle - where plate movements supercontinents break up, like Pangaea, and open oceans, stabilize and then form new subduction zones close Which the oceans and bring the scattered continents back together.
This break-up and reformation of supercontinents has happened at least three times, on more than four billion years, on Earth. The Iberian subduction will Gradually pull Iberia towards the United States over Approximately 220 million years.
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