Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton
The supercontinent of Pangaea with the positions of the continents at the Permian-Triassic boundary, about 250 Ma. AR=Amuria; NC=North China; SC=South China; PA=Panthalassic Ocean; PT=Paleotethys Ocean; NT=Neotethys Ocean. Orogens shown in red. Subduction zones shown in black. Spreading centers shown in green.Although not a supercontinent, the current Afro-Eurasian landmass contains about 57% of Earth's land area.
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] 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. According to modern definitions, a supercontinent does not exist today;[1] the closest is the current Afro-Eurasian landmass, which covers approximately 57% of Earth's total land area. The last period in which the continental landmasses were near to one another was 336 to 175 million years ago, forming the supercontinent Pangaea. The positions of continents have been accurately determined back to the early Jurassic, shortly before the breakup of Pangaea.[6] Pangaea's predecessor Gondwana is not considered a supercontinent under the first definition since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia and Siberia were separate at the time.[7]
A future supercontinent, termed Pangaea Proxima, is hypothesized to form within the next 250 million years.[8]
^ abRogers, John J. W.; Santosh, M. (2004). Continents and supercontinents. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195165890. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
^Rogers, J.J.W.; Santosh, M. (2002). "Configuration of Columbia, a Mesoproterozoic Supercontinent" (PDF). Gondwana Research. 5 (1): 5–22. Bibcode:2002GondR...5....5R. doi:10.1016/S1342-937X(05)70883-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-03.
^Hoffman, P.F. (1999). "The break-up of Rodinia, birth of Gondwana, true polar wander and the snowball Earth". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 28 (1): 17–33. Bibcode:1999JAfES..28...17H. doi:10.1016/S0899-5362(99)00018-4.
^Bradley, D.C. (2011). "Secular Trends in the Geologic Record and the Supercontinent Cycle". Earth-Science Reviews. 108 (1–2): 16–33. Bibcode:2011ESRv..108...16B. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.715.6618. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2011.05.003. S2CID 140601854.
^Meert, J.G. (2012). "What's in a name? The Columbia (Paleopangaea/Nuna) supercontinent". Gondwana Research. 21 (4): 987–993. Bibcode:2012GondR..21..987M. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2011.12.002.
^Fluteau, Frédéric. (2003). "Earth dynamics and climate changes". C. R. Geoscience 335 (1): 157–174. doi:10.1016/S1631-0713(03)00004-X
^Bradley, D. C. (23 December 2014). "Mineral evolution and Earth history". American Mineralogist. 100 (1): 4–5. Bibcode:2015AmMin.100....4B. doi:10.2138/am-2015-5101. S2CID 140191182.
^Williams, Caroline; Nield, Ted (October 2007). "Earth's next supercontinent". New Scientist. 196 (2626): 36–40. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(07)62661-X.
In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, some geologists...
Pangaea or Pangea (/pænˈdʒiː.ə/) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental...
The supercontinent cycle is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust. There are varying opinions as to whether the amount...
the continental shelf. South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwana around 135 million years ago, forming its own continent. Around...
"motherland, birthplace") was a Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic supercontinent that assembled 1.26–0.90 billion years ago (Ga) and broke up 750–633...
Neopangaea, and Pangaea II) is a possible future supercontinent configuration. Consistent with the supercontinent cycle, Pangaea Proxima could form within the...
the Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed...
of the Earth's landmasses collected into a single supercontinent around 1130 Ma. The supercontinent, known as Rodinia, broke up around 750 Ma. A number...
Vaalbara today Vaalbara is a hypothetical Archean supercontinent consisting of the Kaapvaal Craton (now in eastern South Africa) and the Pilbara Craton...
or Novopangea (Greco-Latin for "New Pangaea") is a possible future supercontinent postulated by Roy Livermore in the late 1990s. It assumes closure of...
divergence of tectonic plates during the assembly and disassembly of supercontinents. A classic example of the Wilson Cycle is the opening and closing of...
when the continents of Laurentia and Amazonia collided, creating a supercontinent called Rodinia. The collision of these continents caused the rocks to...
through several supercontinent breakup and rebuilding cycles (Wilson cycle). In the late Proterozoic (most recent), the dominant supercontinent was Rodinia...
Earth's orbit. As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle, plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250–350 million years. Sometime in...
postulates that the current continents formed from the breaking up of a supercontinent (Pangaea) that formed hundreds of millions of years ago. By convention...
occasionally combining to form a supercontinent. Roughly 750 million years ago, the earliest-known supercontinent Rodinia, began to break apart. The...
more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around 335 to 175 million years ago (Mya), the other being Gondwana...
encompassed planet Earth and surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea, the latest in a series of supercontinents in the history of Earth. During the Paleozoic–Mesozoic...
Paleozoic Era witnessed the breakup of the supercontinent of Pannotia and ended while the supercontinent Pangaea was assembling. The breakup of Pannotia...
is a hypothetical Neoarchean supercontinent. If it existed, it would have been one of the earliest known supercontinents on Earth. It is thought to have...
reefs and placoderms. Devonian palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent Gondwana to the south, the small continent of Siberia to the north,...
had evolved prior to the Great Oxidation Event. During this era, the supercontinent Kenorland is proposed to have formed about 2.7 billion years ago. Kenorland...
list includes cratons, supercratons, microcontinents, continents and supercontinents. For the Archean to Paleoproterozoic cores of most of the continents...
land mass was concentrated into a single supercontinent, Pangaea (lit. 'entire land'). This supercontinent was more-or-less centered on the equator and...
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