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In geology
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, a supercontinent is a landmass
Landmass

A landmass is a large continuous area of landform. Although it may be most often written as one word to distinguish it from the usage 'land mass' to mean the measure of a land area, it is also used as two words....
 comprising more than one continent
Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
al core, or craton
Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million years....
. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes
Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
 that form Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
 qualifies as a supercontinent today.

commonly, paleogeographers employ the term supercontinent to refer to a single landmass consisting of all the modern continent
Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
s. The earliest known supercontinent was Vaalbara
Vaalbara

Vaalbara is the Earth's theorized first supercontinent. According to Radiometric dating data of the encompassing cratons that constituted Vaalbara, it is believed to have existed 3.3 billion years ago and possibly as far back as 3.6 Ga....
. It formed from proto-continents and was a supercontinent by 3.1 billion years ago (3.1 Ga).






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In geology
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, a supercontinent is a landmass
Landmass

A landmass is a large continuous area of landform. Although it may be most often written as one word to distinguish it from the usage 'land mass' to mean the measure of a land area, it is also used as two words....
 comprising more than one continent
Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
al core, or craton
Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million years....
. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes
Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
 that form Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
 qualifies as a supercontinent today.

History

Most commonly, paleogeographers employ the term supercontinent to refer to a single landmass consisting of all the modern continent
Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
s. The earliest known supercontinent was Vaalbara
Vaalbara

Vaalbara is the Earth's theorized first supercontinent. According to Radiometric dating data of the encompassing cratons that constituted Vaalbara, it is believed to have existed 3.3 billion years ago and possibly as far back as 3.6 Ga....
. It formed from proto-continents and was a supercontinent by 3.1 billion years ago (3.1 Ga). Vaalbara
Vaalbara

Vaalbara is the Earth's theorized first supercontinent. According to Radiometric dating data of the encompassing cratons that constituted Vaalbara, it is believed to have existed 3.3 billion years ago and possibly as far back as 3.6 Ga....
 broke up ~2.8 Ga. The supercontinent Kenorland
Kenorland

Kenorland was one of the earliest supercontinents on Earth. It is believed to have formed during the Archaean Era ~2.7 billion years ago by the accretion of Neoarchaean cratons and the formation of new continental crust....
 was formed ~2.7 Ga and then broke sometime after 2.5 Ga into the proto-continent craton
Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million years....
s called 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....
, 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....
, Australia
Yilgarn craton

The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic fold and thrust belts....
, and Kalahari
Kalahari craton

The Kalahari craton occupies a large portion of South Africa and consists of the Kaapvall craton, the Zimbabwe craton, the Limpopo belt, and the Namaqua Belt....
. The supercontinent Columbia
Columbia (supercontinent)

Columbia is the name of one of the Earth's oldest supercontinents. It was first proposed by J.J.W. Rogers and M. Santosh, and is thought to have existed approximately 1.8 to 1.5 billion years ago in the Paleoproterozoic era , making it the oldest hypothesized continent....
 formed and broke up during a period of 1.8 to 1.5 billion years (1.8-1.5 Ga) ago.

The supercontinent Rodinia
Rodinia

In geology, Rodinia is the name of a supercontinent, a continent which contained most or all of Earth's landmass. According to plate tectonic reconstructions, Rodinia existed between 1100 and 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era ....
 broke up roughly 750 million years ago. One of the fragments included large parts of the continents now located in the southern hemisphere. Plate tectonics brought the fragments of Rodinia back together in a different configuration during the late 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...
 era, forming the best-known supercontinent, Pangaea
Pangaea

Pangaea, Pang?a or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
. Pangaea subsequently broke up into the northern and southern supercontinents, Laurasia
Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era . It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia , Baltica, Siberia , Kazakhstania, and the North China Craton and East China Craton craton...
 and 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..

Modern studies have suggested that supercontinents form in cycles, coming together and breaking apart again through plate tectonics
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
, very roughly about every 250 million
Million

One million , or one thousand 1000 , is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The name is derived from Italian, where mille was 1,000, and 1,000,000 became milione, "a large thousand"....
 year
Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
s.

Geology

Supercontinents block the flow of heat from the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
's interior, and thus cause the asthenosphere
Asthenosphere

The asthenosphere is the mechanically weak ductily-deforming region of the upper Mantle of the Earth. It lies below the lithosphere, at depths between 100 and 200 km below the surface, but perhaps extending as deep as 400 km ....
 to overheat. Eventually, the lithosphere
Lithosphere

File:Plates tect2 en.svgFile:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.svgThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet....
 will begin to dome upward and crack, magma
Magma

Magma is molten Rock that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles....
 will then rise, and the fragments will be pushed apart. It is currently a matter of some debate as to how the supercontinents reform, whether or not plate tectonics makes them re-join after travelling around the planet, or if they move apart and then back together again.

See also

  • Superocean
    Superocean

    A superocean is an ocean which surrounds a supercontinent. It is less commonly defined as any ocean larger than the current Pacific Ocean. Named global superoceans include Mirovia, which surrounded the supercontinent Rodinia, and Panthalassa, which surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea....
    s
  • Plate tectonics
    Plate tectonics

    Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
  • List of supercontinents
    List of supercontinents

    This is a list of supercontinents. The list is written in reverse-chronological order comprising nearly all land at the time....
  • Supercontinent cycle
    Supercontinent cycle

    The supercontinent cycle describes the quasi-periodic aggregration and dispersal of Earth's continental crust. There are varying opinions as to whether Earth's budget of continental crust is increasing, decreasing, or remaining about constant, but it is agreed that this inventory is constantly being reconfigured....


External links

  • : General earth history
  • on WikiTimeScale
    WikiTimeScale

    WikiTimeScale is a wiki displaying historic persons, historic events and other historic matters graphically and interactive on a timeline. It was written in PHP, uses a MySQL database and is open source under the GNU General Public License....
    .org