No, not all of Earth's ocean basins are less than 2000 million years old. While many ocean basins have formed and changed over the last 200 million years due to plate tectonics, some features, like the Atlantic Ocean, have origins that date back to around 200 million years ago. In contrast, older oceanic crust can be found in certain areas, such as parts of the Pacific Ocean, which can be much older, but the ocean basins themselves continuously evolve and are shaped by geological processes.
The oldest rock on the ocean floor can be found in the central parts of the ocean basins, particularly in regions known as abyssal plains. These rocks are generally around 200 million years old or older.
On average, continents are older than ocean basins. Due to the action of plate tectonics, ocean crust is being formed and destroyed continuously. The oldest oceanic crust is about 200 million years old, whereas continents, which are less dense than oceanic crust and tend not to be subducted into the mantle, can be more than 3,000 million years old in places.
4.6million years ago
The sun revolves around the galactic center in about 220 million years, give or take 20 million years or so.
Rodinia is a supercontinent that formed around 1100 million years ago and lasted until its break-up about 750 million years ago. Rodinia is evidence of plate tectonics since the plates shift positions throughout geologic time.
200 million
The slowest-changing feature on Earth's surface is likely its tectonic plates, which move at a rate of a few centimeters per year. This movement can result in slow changes in topography and the creation of mountains or ocean basins over millions of years.
During the Cambrian period, around 500 million years ago, the Earth's surface looked vastly different from today. The supercontinent of Gondwana covered much of the southern hemisphere, while ocean basins were expanding. The land was mostly barren, with simple plants and algae beginning to emerge.
The ocean basins are the result of tectonic forces and processes. All of the ocean basins were formed from volcanic rock that was released from fissures located at the mid-oceanic ridges. The oldest rocks found in these basins are approximately 200 million years old. This is a lot younger than the oldest continental rocks which have ages greater than 4 billion years. The reason for this discrepancy is simple. Tectonic processes destroy old oceanic rocks! Oceanic rock is returned to the Earth's mantlewhen oceanic crust is subducted. Many of these subduction zones occur at the continental marginswhere oceanic crust meets continental crust. Subduction also creates the ocean's deep trenches.
In 1990, after 20 years of searching, geologists found the oldest oceanic rocks by drilling into the seafloor of the western Pacific. These rocks turned out to be about 200 million years old, only about 4% of the Earth's age.
200 million
The continent of South America was formed when North and South America split from each other over 65 million years ago. North America is located in the Northern hemisphere and South America is located in the Southern hemisphere.