Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
To separate supercontinents from other groupings, a limit has been proposed in which a continent must include at least about 75% of the continental crust then in existence in order to qualify as a supercontinent. [5] Moving under the forces of plate tectonics, supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past.
Map of Pangaea with modern continental outlines. The supercontinent cycle is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust.There are varying opinions as to whether the amount of continental crust is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same, but it is agreed that the Earth's crust is constantly being reconfigured.
Gondwana (/ ɡ ɒ n d ˈ w ɑː n ə /) [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.
The degree of certainty to which the identified landmasses can be regarded as independent entities reduces as geologists look further back in time. The list includes cratons, supercratons, microcontinents, continents and supercontinents. For the Archean to Paleoproterozoic cores of most of the continents see also list of shields and cratons.
Pangaea is the most recent supercontinent reconstructed from the geologic record and therefore is by far the best understood. The formation of supercontinents and their breakup appears to be cyclical through Earth's history. There may have been several others before Pangaea.
As with most supercontinents, the interior areas of Pangaea Proxima are presumed to become humid, semi-arid deserts that will be prone to extreme temperatures up to 55°C. [3] Most land mammals, including humans, are speculated to be driven to extinction (comparable to the Permian–Triassic extinction event ) because of these environments.
It is one of the four proposed supercontinents that are speculated to form within 200 million years, the others being Pangaea Proxima, Amasia, and Novopangaea. The Aurica hypothesis was created by scholars at the Geological Magazine [1] following an American Geophysical Union study linking the strength of ocean tides to the supercontinent cycle ...
Аԥсшәа; العربية; Azərbaycanca; تۆرکجه; বাংলা; 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú; Башҡортса; Беларуская; Беларуская ...