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Gondwana ( / ɡɒndˈwɑːnə /) [1] was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Zealandia, Arabia, and the Indian Subcontinent. Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons ...
The name "Pangaea" is derived from Ancient Greek pan (πᾶν, "all, entire, whole") and Gaia or Gaea (Γαῖα, " Mother Earth, land"). [4][9] The first to suggest that the continents were once joined and later separated may have been Abraham Ortelius in 1596. [10] The concept that the continents once formed a contiguous land mass was ...
The name is a portmanteau of Laurentia and Asia. [2] Laurentia, Avalonia, Baltica, and a series of smaller terranes, collided in the Caledonian orogeny c. 400 Ma to form Laurussia/Euramerica. Laurussia/Euramerica then collided with Gondwana to form Pangaea. Kazakhstania and Siberia were then added to Pangaea 290–300 Ma to form Laurasia.
Australia was created by the junction of three early pieces of continental crust (cratons). Three areas of the Australian landmass that are made of Archaean rocks are more than 2.5 billion years old, among the oldest known rocks. These igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the Yilgarn (West) and Pilbara (North) cratons in today's Western ...
In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth 's continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. [1][2][3] However, some geologists use a different definition, "a grouping of formerly dispersed continents", which leaves room for interpretation and is easier to apply to Precambrian times. [4]
Pannotia was centred on the South Pole, hence its name. Pannotia (from Greek: pan-, "all", -nótos, "south"; meaning "all southern land"), also known as the Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian during the Pan-African orogeny (650–500 Ma), during the ...
The continent began to break part at a single point but then fractured and ripped open in three different directions. Two of the three rifts that were created were successful and the third failed. The breaking up Rodinia caused the formation of Gondwana or Gondwanaland and Laurentia. [27]
Landscape – Natural. The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, formerly known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, are the most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world. [1] Collectively, the rainforests are a World Heritage Site with fifty separate reserves totalling 366,500 hectares (906,000 acres) from Newcastle to Brisbane.