Rheic Ocean

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Rheic Ocean

The Rheic Ocean was a Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geology Era of the Phanerozoic Eon . The Paleozoic spanned from roughly , and is subdivided into six period ; from oldest to youngest they are: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian period, Carboniferous, and Permian...
ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
between the large continent Gondwana

Gondwana

Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent and then as a remnant separated from Laurasia 180- during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Annum ago into two large segments. to the south and the microcontinents Avalonia

Avalonia

Avalonia was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States....
and others to the north. It formed during the Cambrian

Cambrian

The Cambrian is a geologic period that began about Mya at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about Ma with the beginning of the Ordovician period ....
and was destroyed during the Hercynian (European name) and Alleghenian

Alleghenian orogeny

The Alleghenian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geology mountain-forming events that formed the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Mountains....
(North American name) orogenies

Orogeny

Orogeny refers to natural mountain building, and may be studied as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and a chronological event: orogenic events cause distinctive structural phenomena and related tectonic activity, affect certain regions of rocks and crust, and happen within a specific period of time....
during the Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 ? 2.5 annum , to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ? 0.8 Ma ...
.

he beginning of the Paleozoic era, about 540 million years ago, most of the continental mass on Earth was clustered around the south pole as the paleocontinent Gondwana.

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The Rheic Ocean was a Paleozoic

Paleozoic

Ocean

Gondwana

Avalonia

Cambrian

Alleghenian orogeny

The Alleghenian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geology mountain-forming events that formed the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Mountains....
(North American name) orogenies

Orogeny

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 ? 2.5 annum , to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ? 0.8 Ma ...
.

Geodynamic evolution

At the beginning of the Paleozoic era, about 540 million years ago, most of the continental mass on Earth was clustered around the south pole as the paleocontinent Gondwana. The exception was formed by a number of smaller continents, such as Laurentia

Laurentia

Laurentia , like all craton land, was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth , bumping into other continents and drifting away....
and Baltica

Baltica

Baltica redirects here. For the Russian beer, see Baltika BreweriesBaltica is a name applied by geologists to a late-Proterozoic, early-Palaeozoic continent that now includes the East European craton of northwestern Eurasia....
. The Paleozoic ocean between Gondwana, Laurentia and Baltica is called the Iapetus Ocean

Iapetus Ocean

The Iapetus Ocean was an ocean that existed in the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale . The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the southern hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia....
.

The northern edge of Gondwana had been dominated by the Cadomian orogeny

Cadomian Orogeny

The Cadomian Orogeny was a plate tectonics event or series of events in the late Neoproterozoic, about 650-550 Annum, which probably included the formation of mountains....
during the Ediacaran

Ediacaran

The Ediacaran Period is the last geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era and of the Proterozoic Eon, immediately preceding the Cambrian Period, the first period of the Paleozoic Era and of the Phanerozoic Eon....
period. This orogeny formed a cordillera

Cordillera

A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, that runs along a coastline . It comes from the Spanish language word cordilla, which is a diminutive of cuerda, or "cord"....
-type volcanic arc

Volcanic arc

A volcanic arc is a chain of volcanos or mountains formed by plate tectonics as an oceanic tectonic plate subduction under another tectonic plate and produces magma....
where oceanic crust

Oceanic crust

Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or Sima ....
subducted below Gondwana. When a mid-oceanic ridge subducted

Subduction

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundary by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge....
under an oblique angle, extensional basins

Extensional tectonics

Extensional tectonics is concerned with the structures formed, and the tectonic processes associated with, the stretching of the Crust or lithosphere....
developed along the northern margin of Gondwana. During the late Cambrian

Cambrian

The Cambrian is a geologic period that began about Mya at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about Ma with the beginning of the Ordovician period ....
to Early Ordovician these extensional basins had evolved a rift

Rift

In geology, a rift is a place where the Earth's Crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.Typical rift features are a central linear downdropped geologic fault segment, called a graben, with parallel normal faulting and rift-flank uplifts on either side forming a rift valley, where the rift r...
running along the northern edge of Gondwana. The rift in its turn evolved into a mid-oceanic ridge that separated small continental fragments such as Avalonia and Carolina from the main Gondwanan land mass.

Avalonia drifted north from Gondwana, the Rheic Ocean grew. The northward movement of Avalonia made the Iapetus Ocean

Iapetus Ocean

The Iapetus Ocean was an ocean that existed in the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale . The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the southern hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia....
shrink during the Middle Ordovician to Late Silurian. For much of the Late Ordovician, the Rheic Ocean appears to have widened as fast as today's East Pacific Rise

East Pacific Rise

The East Pacific Rise is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate....
(at 17 cm/year). Meanwhile, Avalonia

Avalonia

Avalonia was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States....
collided with Baltica

Baltica

Laurentia

Laurentia , like all craton land, was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth , bumping into other continents and drifting away....
in the Late Silurian to form Laurussia during the Caledonian orogeny

Caledonian orogeny

The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, western Scandinavia, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe....
. The Rheic Ocean itself began to close in the Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
when Gondwana, probably preceeded by terranes that had broken off, drifted towards Laurussia.

By the Late Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
, the Rheic Ocean had become a narrow ocean that was then sutured

Suture (geology)

A suture is in structural geology a major Fault zone through an orogen or mountain range. Sutures separate terranes: tectonics units that have different plate tectonics, metamorphism and paleogeography histories....
between Gondwana and Laurussia. The ocean closed from east to west, first in what is presently central Europe (the Hercynian orogeny), then the northeast of North America (Alleghenian orogeny) and northwest of Africa and finally in the southeast of North America (Ouachita orogeny

Ouachita orogeny

The Ouachita orogeny was a orogeny event that resulted in the Fold and Fault of stratum currently exposed in the Ouachita Mountains. The more extensive Ouachita system extends from the current range in Arkansas and Oklahoma southeast to the Black Warrior Basin in Alabama and to the southwest through the Llano Uplift and Marathon Uplifts in...
) and north of South America.

Name

The ocean between Baltica and Laurentia was named for Iapetus

Iapetus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Iapetus, also Iapetos or Japetus , was a Titan , the son of Uranus and Gaia , and father of Atlas , Prometheus, Epimetheus , and Menoetius and through Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race....
, in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
the father of Atlas

Atlas (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia or Klym?ne :...
, just as the Iapetus Ocean was the predecessor of the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
. The ocean between Gondwana and Baltica was then named Rheic Ocean for Rhea

Rhea (mythology)

This page is about the Greek mythological figure. For the bird, see Rhea .Rhea was the Titan daughter of Ouranos , the sky, and Gaia , the earth, in Classical Greece mythology....
, sister of Iapetus.