supercontinent
Continents fused together
A supercontinent is a landmass comprising most or all of Earth's continental crust, formed when tectonic plates collide and merge over hundreds of millions of years.
Pangaea is the most famous example, existing roughly 300 million years ago before breaking apart into today's continents.
Geologists theorize that supercontinents have formed and fragmented several times throughout Earth's history in a recurring cycle.
Prehistoric unified landmass
Earth's crust mobility theory
- subductionPlate descending beneath another
- riftCrack or estrangement
- mantleCovering or wrap
- lithosphereCrust plus upper mantle
asthenosphere · collision · orogeny · craton · convergence · suture · trench · fault
Vanished equatorial ocean
- landmassContinuous area of ground
- paleoclimatePast geological climate conditions
- biogeographyScience of species distribution
Constructing from components
- breakupRomantic relationship's termination
- amalgamationUniting into one
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- coalescenceUniting into one mass
rifting · dispersal · reconstruction · merger · formation · separation · reassembly · oscillation
Pangaea
Prehistoric unified landmass
plate tectonics
Earth's crust mobility theory
- subductionPlate descending beneath another
- riftCrack or estrangement
- mantleCovering or wrap
lithosphere · asthenosphere · collision · orogeny · craton · convergence · suture · trench · fault · volcanism
Tethys Sea
Vanished equatorial ocean
- landmassContinuous area of ground
- paleoclimatePast geological climate conditions
- biogeographyScience of species distribution
assembly
Constructing from components
- breakupRomantic relationship's termination
- amalgamationUniting into one
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
coalescence · rifting · dispersal · reconstruction · merger · formation · separation · reassembly · oscillation
fossil evidence
Preserved remains supporting theories
- ContinentsAfrica, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe
- landmassesisland, peninsula, Africa, mainland, Asia
- Earth historyice age, geological time, extinction, eons, fossil
- plate tectonicstectonic plates, plate tectonics, plate boundaries, subduction, subduction zones
- Ancient EarthPangaea, Gondwana, Tethys Sea, primordial sea, ice age
- tectonicsplate tectonics, tectonic plates, tectonic plate, subduction, plate boundaries
supercontinentisland
Water-bounded land mass
microcontinent · archipelago · islet · atoll · craton