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Pangaea is the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists. Origin of the concept. Alfred Wegener c. 1924–1930World map of Pangaea created by Alfred Wegener to illustrate his concept. The name "Pangaea" is derived from Ancient Greekpan(πᾶν, "all, entire, whole") and Gaiaor Gaea (Γαῖα ...
The Paleozoic is a time in Earth's history when active complex life forms evolved, took their first foothold on dry land, and when the forerunners of all multicellular life on Earth began to diversify. There are six periods in the Paleozoic era: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian.
Terminology and origin of the concept. [edit] Laurentia, the Palaeozoic core of North America and continental fragments that now make up part of Europe, collided with Baltica and Avalonia in the Caledonian orogeny c. 430–420 Mya to form Laurussia. In the Late Carboniferous Laurussia and Gondwana formed Pangaea.
Pangaea's supercontinent cycle is a good example of the efficiency of using the presence or lack of these entities to record the development, tenure, and break-up of supercontinents. There is a sharp decrease in passive margins between 500 and 350 Ma during the timing of Pangaea's assembly.
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 geological history of the Earth follows the major geological events in Earth's past based on the geological time scale, a system of chronological measurement based on the study of the planet's rock layers (stratigraphy). Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula, a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left ...
1991. The Mesozoic Era[3] is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about 252 to 66 million years ago, comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of gymnosperms and of archosaurian reptiles, such as the dinosaurs; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea.
Continental drift is the theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. [1] The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.