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Today, through plate tectonics, the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines stand as barriers between the Indian and Pacific oceans. In fact, there once was a warm ocean current flowing from the Pacific to the Indian before the volcanic upbringings of the islands detoured the current to the North Pacific.

But if the plate tectonics are rearranged to the extent that neither Indonesia nor the Philippines exist, how would the difference in current circulation affect the climates of Asia and Australia?

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    $\begingroup$ Pardon me while I just plug in my super-computer and re-crunch the numbers for a while - I'll get back to you in a decade or so :-) The answers can only be speculative because such a hypothesis would totally rearrange the ocean currents on a global scale. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Stanger
    Dec 18 '15 at 14:09
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    $\begingroup$ Indeed it is almost impossible to answer. However if you asked what was the climate like when the Indonesian seaway was still opened, that would probably be answerable. $\endgroup$
    – plannapus
    Dec 21 '15 at 8:33
  • $\begingroup$ @plannapus I'm aiming for the 21st-century climate. The climate in the past was too different. $\endgroup$
    – JohnWDailey
    Dec 21 '15 at 21:26
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnWDailey Looks like 21st century climate is going to be extremely variable $\endgroup$
    – Gimelist
    May 13 '16 at 20:41