Pangea
Earth's first continent
Pangea is the supercontinent that existed roughly 300 million years ago, when all of Earth's major landmasses were joined as a single body.
The name comes from Greek words meaning "all earth." Continental drift gradually broke Pangea apart into the continents we know today.
Before Pangea split, you could have walked from Antarctica to Alaska.
Ancient southern supercontinent
- ColumbiaAmerica personified, or its namesakes
- Tethys SeaVanished equatorial ocean
- landmassContinuous area of ground
- cratonStable ancient continental core
Late Paleozoic geological period
- TriassicFirst Mesozoic period
- PaleozoicEarly complex-life epoch
- MesozoicAge of Reptiles
- CarboniferousCoal-depositing geological period
fossil record · dinosaurs · amphibians · trilobites · conifers · mass extinction · monsoons
Gradual landmass repositioning
- riftCrack or estrangement
- separationState of being apart
- dispersalSpreading in many directions
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
Mobile crustal sections
- lithosphereCrust plus upper mantle
- asthenosphereDuctile upper mantle layer
- plate boundariesEdges of crustal sections
- subductionPlate descending beneath another
orogeny · paleomagnetism · geodynamics · isostasy · mantle · earth's crust · seismology · stratigraphy
Complete, undivided state
- interconnectionMutual joining of parts
- onenessState of being unified
- unificationMerging into one entity
- amalgamationUniting into one
consolidation · contiguous · undivided · totality · completeness
Gondwana
Ancient southern supercontinent
- ColumbiaAmerica personified, or its namesakes
- Tethys SeaVanished equatorial ocean
- landmassContinuous area of ground
craton · Ur · paleogeography · reconstruction
Permian
Late Paleozoic geological period
Carboniferous · fossil record · dinosaurs · amphibians · trilobites · conifers · mass extinction · monsoons
continental drift
Gradual landmass repositioning
- riftCrack or estrangement
- separationState of being apart
- dispersalSpreading in many directions
fragmentation · mid-ocean ridge · plate tectonics · volcanism
tectonic plates
Mobile crustal sections
- lithosphereCrust plus upper mantle
- asthenosphereDuctile upper mantle layer
- plate boundariesEdges of crustal sections
subduction · orogeny · paleomagnetism · geodynamics · isostasy · mantle · earth's crust · seismology · stratigraphy · geochronology
wholeness
Complete, undivided state
- interconnectionMutual joining of parts
- onenessState of being unified
- unificationMerging into one entity
amalgamation · consolidation · contiguous · undivided · totality · completeness
- money transferWestern Union, wire transfer, PayPal, money order, Venmo
- Triassicarchosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, Tethys Sea
- geologybedrock, fault lines, faults, rock, basalt
- landmassescontinent, island, peninsula, Africa, mainland
Pangeaarchipelago
Chain of scattered islands
island chains · fragmentation · scattering · diaspora · dispersal