Chinese scientists have concluded that changes in the contours of the Tethys Ocean have led to global cooling over the last 500 million years. And the drift of parts of Gondwana across the Tethys created reserves of hydrocarbons, tungsten, lithium and tin on the Eurasian continent.

The Tethys is an ancient ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during the Mesozoic era. What remains of Tethys today are the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas. Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to learn more about how this ocean changes the Earth’s climate. The results of their research were published in the journal Science China Earth Sciences.

Experts have studied the tectonic evolution of the ancient ocean through successive series of “closing” and “opening”. The Paleotethys is known to have existed in the period between 320 and 260 million years ago – it stretched from the Alps to the Qinling Mountains. Later, between 200 and 66.5 million years ago, this reservoir would develop into the Mesothethys, which stretched from the Caribbean Basin to Tibet. And finally, between 66 and 13 million years ago, Neotethys emerged.

All three oceans (Paleotethys, Mesotethys, and Neotethys) opened and closed again, allowing the continental fragments of Gondwana to drift north one after another. Thus, Neotethys was formed after the breakup of Gondwana, when Africa (along with the Arabian Peninsula) and Hindustan moved northward, compressing Tethys into the size of the Indo-Atlantic Sea.

This latitudinal movement of parts of the continent changed the distribution of sea and land in the hot and humid tropical region. But it is not entirely clear how exactly these processes affect the climate in the tropical part of the planet. The authors of the study showed the main attention to this issue.

They found a link between a significant increase in land area in low latitudes and global cooling across the planet over the last 500 million years. This process is linked to the fact that regions at lower latitudes receive more solar energy than “higher” regions. Increasing land area in low latitudes has reduced the net absorption of solar energy (continents reflect the sun’s rays more strongly than the seas). As a result, cooling occurred all over the planet.

In addition, scientists discovered that the drift of continental segments and the change in the contours of the Tethys ocean also changed the mineral composition of many ground rocks on the Eurasian continent. This is understandable, because the tropics are an ideal environment for the well-being of marine plankton and therefore the formation of sediments rich in organic matter.

As the continent passed through the tropics, these sediments accumulated in abundance around the continent. This created favorable conditions for the formation of hydrocarbon reserves in the future. The sinking of organic-rich sediments during the ocean closure also led to the formation of a special chemical environment that contributed to the mineralization of tungsten, tin and lithium ore deposits.