By James Pero For Dailymail.com
Published: 19:18 BST, 7 May 2019 | Updated: 19:19 BST, 7 May 2019
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A new computer model suggests a tectonic plate in the Atlantic Ocean is starting a process that could shrink the ocean and send the European land mass on a slow procession towards Canada.
If the model is accurate, it would be the first time a plate has been captured in a process called 'peeling,' where the bottom of a tectonic plate peels away from the top, causing them to grind under one another.
As reported by National Geographic, the phenomenon, which could lead to the formation of what's known as a subduction zone, was observed by João Duarte a marine geologist from the Instituto Dom Luiz at the University of Lisbon.
The Horseshoe abyssal plain, pictured above, has confounded geologists for its unusual seismic activity, but new research has offered unprecedented insight
Duarte, like many other geologists, has been confounded by the area, called the Horseshoe abyssal plain, due to its unusual, and strong, seismic activity.
Two times throughout recorded history the area has been the source of devastating earthquakes, one of which destroyed the city of Lisbon in the mid 1700's.
Though it had been hypothesized that an unlikely subduction zone lay beneath the surface, until now, no researcher had produced hard evidence.
Using a mixture of seismic readings, hunches based in prior events, and what Duarte calls 'connecting the dots,' scientists were able to develop 2D models, that point to the suspected process of 'peeling' for the first time.
Specifically, researchers