what is pangea?
Pangea was a massive supercontinent that existed millions of years ago, uniting nearly all of Earth's landmasses into one giant landform surrounded by a vast ocean called Panthalassa.
Formation Timeline
Pangea fully assembled during the Early Permian Epoch, around 299 to 273 million years ago, from earlier continents like Gondwana, Euramerica, and Siberia. It began breaking apart about 200 million years ago in the Early Jurassic, driven by plate tectonics and seafloor spreading, leading to today's continents.
Discovery Story
German scientist Alfred Wegener proposed the idea in 1912 after noticing how continents fit like puzzle pieces and shared fossils across oceans. Initially ridiculed, his continental drift theory gained acceptance with mid-20th- century evidence like matching rock layers and magnetic seafloor stripes.
Key Features
- Shape and Size : C-shaped, covering about one-third of Earth's surface, with diverse climates from icy poles to tropical interiors.
- Geological Impacts : Its formation created mountains like the Ural Mountains from colliding plates; breakup formed the Atlantic Ocean via rifting.
- Life During Pangea : Hosted early dinosaurs, massive reptiles, and ferns; arid interiors led to unique adaptations.
Modern Relevance
Scientists predict a future supercontinent like "Pangaea Proxima" in 250 million years from colliding plates. Pangea explains fossil distributions, like identical species on separated continents, proving Earth's dynamic crust.
TL;DR : Pangea supercontinent joined all lands ~300-200 million years ago, split by tectonics into our world map.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.