"Ortelius hypothesized the idea that land masses may have been connected in the past, Alfred Wegener who hypothesized the idea of a super-continent Pangaea and continental drift despite the prevailing idea of flooded land-bridges at the time, and Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp who discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that supported the theory of plate tectonics. Tyson describes how the landmasses of the earth lay atop the mantle, which moves due to the motion and heat of the earth's outer and inner core. Tyson moves on to explain the asteroid impact that initiated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, leaving small mammals"
"Earth's land mass was concentrated into a single supercontinent centered more or less on the equator, called Pangaea (""all the land""). This took the form of a giant ""Pac-Man"" with an east-facing ""mouth"" constituting the Tethys sea, a vast gulf that opened farther westward in the mid-Triassic, at the expense of the shrinking Paleo-Tethys Ocean, an ocean that existed during the Paleozoic. The remainder was the world-ocean known as Panthalassa (""all the sea""). All the deep-ocean sediments laid down during the Triassic have disappeared through subduction of oceanic plates; thus, very little is known of the Triassic open ocean. The"
"Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago. In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, much of Pangaea was in the southern hemisphere and surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa. Pangaea was the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists. The name ""Pangaea/Pangea"" is derived from Ancient Greek ""pan"" (, ""all, entire, whole"") and ""Gaia"" (, ""Mother"
"influenced by an increase in atmospheric oxygen. Supercontinent 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, many earth scientists use an alternate definition, ""a clustering of nearly all continents"", which leaves room for interpretation and is easier to apply to Precambrian times. Supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past (see table). According to the modern definitions, a supercontinent does not exist today. The supercontinent Pangaea is the collective name describing all of the continental landmasses when they were most recently"
"time scales lasting hundreds of millions of years, the supercontinents have formed and broken apart three times. Roughly (million years ago), one of the earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia, 600–, then finally Pangaea, which also broke apart . ""Land mass"" refers to the total surface area of the land of a geographical region or country (which may include discontinuous pieces of land such as islands). It is written as two words to distinguish it from the usage ""landmass"", the contiguous area of land surrounded by ocean. Earth's total land mass"
"Supercontinent 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, many earth scientists use an alternate definition, ""a clustering of nearly all continents"", which leaves room for interpretation and is easier to apply to Precambrian times. Supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past (see table). According to the modern definitions, a supercontinent does not exist today. The supercontinent Pangaea is the collective name describing all of the continental landmasses when they were most recently near to one another. The positions of"
"Afro-Eurasia Afro-Eurasia (or Afroeurasia, or Eurafrasia, or nicknamed the World Island) is a landmass which comprises the continents of Eurasia (Europe and Asia) and Africa. The terms are portmanteaus of the names of its constituent parts. It is the largest contiguous landmass on Earth. Afro-Eurasia encompasses , a little over half the world's land area, and has a population of approximately 6 billion people, roughly 86% of the world population. The following terms are used for similar concepts: Although Afro-Eurasia is typically considered to comprise two or three separate continents, it is not a proper supercontinent. Instead, it is the"
"area—it is also used as two words. Landmasses include supercontinents, continents, and islands. There are four major continuous landmasses on Earth: Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, Antarctica and Australia. Land, capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops, is called arable land. A country or region may be referred to as the motherland, fatherland, or homeland of its people. Many countries and other places have names incorporating -land (e.g. New Zealand). The earliest material found in the Solar System is dated to (billion years ago); therefore, the Earth itself must have been formed by accretion around this time. By , the"
"Panthalassa Panthalassa, also known as the Panthalassic Ocean or Panthalassan Ocean (from Greek ""all"" and ""sea""), was the superocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea. During the Paleozoic–Mesozoic transition 250 it occupied almost 70% of Earth's surface. Its ocean floor has completely disappeared because of the continuous subduction along the continental margins on its circumference. Panthalassa is also referred to as the Paleo-Pacific (""old Pacific"") or Proto-Pacific because the Pacific Ocean developed from its centre in the Mesozoic to the present. The supercontinent Rodinia began to break-up 870–845 probably as a consequence of a superplume caused by mantle slab avalanches along"
"Gondwana Gondwana (),(or Gondwanaland), was a supercontinent that existed from the Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) until the Carboniferous (about 320 million years ago). It was formed by the accretion of several cratons. Eventually, Gondwana became the largest piece of continental crust of the Paleozoic Era, covering an area of about . During the Carboniferous, it merged with Euramerica to form a larger supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana (and Pangaea) gradually broke up during the Mesozoic Era. The remnants of Gondwana make up about two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and the Indian Subcontinent. The"
"a single supercontinent known as Pangaea. Pangaea straddled the equator and extended toward the poles, with a corresponding effect on ocean currents in the single great ocean (""Panthalassa"", the ""universal sea""), and the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, a large ocean that was between Asia and Gondwana. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia, causing the Paleo-Tethys to shrink. A new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmasses create climates with extreme variations of heat and cold (""continental climate"") and monsoon conditions"
"Hence, most geologists would conclude that the Earth was active at that time. It is also commonly accepted that during the Precambrian, the Earth went through several supercontinent breakup and rebuilding cycles (Wilson cycle). In the late Proterozoic (most recent), the dominant supercontinent was Rodinia (~1000–750 Ma). It consisted of a series of continents attached to a central craton that forms the core of the North American Continent called Laurentia. An example of an orogeny (mountain building processes) associated with the construction of Rodinia is the Grenville orogeny located in Eastern North America. Rodinia formed after the breakup of the"
"dominated by two continents known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior. Amniotes, who could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. The Permian (along with the Paleozoic) ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, in which nearly 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species died out. It would take well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe. Recovery from the Permian–Triassic extinction"
"and past distributions of flora and fauna. The further back in time, the scarcer and harder to interpret the data get and the more uncertain the reconstructions. Throughout the history of the Earth, there have been times when continents collided and formed a supercontinent, which later broke up into new continents. About 1000 to 830 Ma, most continental mass was united in the supercontinent Rodinia. Rodinia may have been preceded by Early-Middle Proterozoic continents called Nuna and Columbia. After the break-up of Rodinia about 800 Ma, the continents may have formed another short-lived supercontinent around 550 Ma. The hypothetical supercontinent"
"the earth’s major continental plates were joined, forming a supercontinent called Pangaea, which was surrounded by the superocean, Panthalassa. Oceanic circulation and atmospheric weather patterns during the mid-Permian produced seasonal monsoons near the coasts and an arid climate in the vast continental interior of Pangaea. The extent of biologically diverse and ecologically productive coastal areas shrank as the supercontinent formed. The elimination of shallow aquatic environments exposed formerly protected organisms of the rich continental shelves to increased environmental volatility. After the formation of Pangaea (see the diagram ""Marine genus biodiversity"" at the top of this article), the rate of marine"
"is, Elves and Men). Arda was considered Earth itself. Because the Sun, Moon, stars, and other objects orbited the planet in the cosmology of Middle-earth they were considered part of Arda, leading to Arda sometimes being called the 'Solar System' of Middle-earth. The term for the Earth itself, excluding these celestial bodies, was Ambar or Imbar. Originally the Earth (Arda) was flat, the continents were surrounded by a mighty ocean (or perhaps by space), Ekkaia or Vaiya, the Encircling Sea. The central and western continents - respectively Middle-earth and Aman - were separated by Belegaer, also called the Great Sea"
"Earth, land""). The concept that the continents once formed a continuous land mass was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, the originator of the scientific theory of continental drift, in his 1912 publication ""The Origin of Continents"" (""Die Entstehung der Kontinente""). He expanded upon his hypothesis in his 1915 book ""The Origin of Continents and Oceans"" (""Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane""), in which he postulated that, before breaking up and drifting to their present locations, all the continents had formed a single supercontinent that he called the """"Urkontinent"""". The name ""Pangea"" occurs in the 1920 edition of ""Die Entstehung der"
"helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. A crust formed when the molten outer layer of Earth cooled to form a solid. The two models that explain land mass propose either a steady growth to the present-day forms or, more likely, a rapid growth early in Earth history followed by a long-term steady continental area. Continents formed by plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior. Over the period of hundreds of millions of years, the supercontinents have assembled and broken apart. Roughly (Mya), one of the earliest"
"New World The New World is one of the names used for the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas (including nearby islands such as those of the Caribbean and Bermuda). The term originated in the early 16th century after Europeans made landfall in what would later be called the Americas in the age of discovery, expanding the geographical horizon of classical geographers, who had thought of the world as consisting of Africa, Europe, and Asia, collectively now referred to as the Old World (a.k.a. Afro-Eurasia). The phrase gained prominence after the publication of a pamphlet titled ""Mundus Novus"""
"Euramerica Euramerica (also known as Laurussia – not to be confused with Laurasia, – the Old Red Continent or the Old Red Sandstone Continent) was a minor supercontinent created in the Devonian as the result of a collision between the Laurentian, Baltica, and Avalonia cratons during the Caledonian orogeny, about 410 million years ago. In the Late Carboniferous, tropical rainforests lay over the equator of Euramerica. A major, abrupt change in vegetation occurred when the climate aridified. The forest fragmented and the lycopsids which dominated these wetlands thinned out, being replaced by opportunistic ferns. There was also a great loss"
"to form the supercontinent of Pangea. The mountain building events that happened at this time created the Appalachian Mountains and the Variscan Belt of Central Europe. However, not all landmasses on Earth had attached themselves onto Pangea. It took until the late Permian until the Siberian land mass collided with Pangea. The only land mass to not be a part of Pangea were the former North and South China plates, they created a much smaller land mass in the ocean. There was a massive ocean that encompassed the world called Panthalassa, because most of the continental crust was sutured together"
"articles: Special topics: Lists: Asia Asia () is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and"
"Pannotia Pannotia (from Greek: ""pan-"", ""all"", ""-nótos"", ""south""; meaning ""all southern land""), also known as Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian during the Pan-African orogeny (650–500 Ma) and broke apart 560 Ma with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. Pannotia formed when Laurentia was located adjacent to the two major South American cratons, Amazonia and Río de la Plata. The opening of the Iapetus Ocean separated Laurentia from Baltica, Amazonia, and Río de la Plata. was probably the first to propose a Proterozoic supercontinent"
"form the Variscan orogeny in the succeeding Devonian and Carboniferous Periods. Both orogenies resulted in the assembly of a super-continent, Pangaea, which was essentially complete by the end of the Carboniferous. In the Ordovician Period, a land mass, which has been named Gondwana (present day South America, Africa, Antarctica and Australia), straddled the space between the South Pole and the Equator on one side of the globe. Off to the west were three other masses: Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica, located as if on the vertices of a triangle. To the south of them was a large archipelago, the terrane Avalonia,"
"Arctica Arctica or Arctida was an ancient continent which formed approximately 2.565 billion years ago in the Neoarchean era. It was made of Archaean cratons, including the Aldan and Anabar/Angara cratons in Siberia and the Slave, Wyoming, Superior, and North Atlantic cratons in North America. Arctica was named by because the Arctic Ocean formed by the separation of the North American and Siberian cratons. Russian geologists writing in English call the continent ""Arctida"" since it was given that name in 1987, alternatively the Hyperborean craton, in reference to the hyperboreans in Greek mythology. Nikolay Shatsky () was the first to"
"Asia Asia () is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense"
"believed to be real) were: Terra Australis Terra Australis (Latin for ""South Land"") was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. The existence of Terra Australis was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that continental land in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the south. This theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps. Other names for the hypothetical continent have included"
"lineage. Pannotia Pannotia (from Greek: ""pan-"", ""all"", ""-nótos"", ""south""; meaning ""all southern land""), also known as Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian during the Pan-African orogeny (650–500 Ma) and broke apart 560 Ma with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. Pannotia formed when Laurentia was located adjacent to the two major South American cratons, Amazonia and Río de la Plata. The opening of the Iapetus Ocean separated Laurentia from Baltica, Amazonia, and Río de la Plata. was probably the first to propose a Proterozoic"
"Columbia (supercontinent) Columbia, also known as Nuna and Hudsonland, was one of Earth's ancient supercontinents. It was first proposed by and is thought to have existed approximately in the Paleoproterozoic Era. proposed that the assembly of the supercontinent Columbia was completed by global-scale collisional events during 2.1–1.8 Ga. Columbia consisted of proto-cratons that made up the cores of the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, Ukrainian Shield, Amazonian Shield, Australia, and possibly Siberia, North China, and Kalaharia as well. The evidence of Columbia's existence is based upon geological and paleomagnetic data. Columbia is estimated to have been approximately from North to South"
"Americas The Americas (also collectively called America; , Spanish/Portuguese: ""América"") comprise the totality of the continents of North and South America. Together, they make up most of the land in Earth's western hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great"
"the southern portion of Laurasia. Paleocontinent A paleocontinent or palaeocontinent is a distinct area of continental crust that existed as a major landmass in the geological past. There have been many different landmasses throughout Earth’s time. They range in sizes, some are just a collection of small microcontinents while others are large conglomerates of crust. As time progresses and sea levels rise and fall more crust can be exposed making way for larger landmasses. The continents of the past shaped the evolution of organisms on Earth and contributed to the climate of the globe as well. As land masses break"
"on the equator and reached from 60° N to 60° S. 1.2-1 bya to 800-850 mya, Proterozoic Eon - end of Precambrian. It was the first supercontinent to form on Earth, all the continental crust on Earth came together and formed one giant land mass. This land mass was surrounded by an even larger ocean, known as Mirovia. There were about four smaller continents that collided and came together to form Rodinia. This event is called the Grenville Orogeny. This caused there to be mountain building along the areas of were continents collided. This is because the continental crust is"
"near the capital city of Auvergne. A 25,000-year-old human-like extraterrestrial inside the spacecraft named ""Yahweh"" said that Elohim was the name that primitive people of Earth called members of his extraterrestrial race—who were seen as ""those who came from the sky"". Yahweh explained that Earth was originally void of life, with thick clouds and shallow seas, but the Elohim came, broke apart the clouds, exposed the seas to sunlight, built a continent, and synthesized a global ecosystem. Solar astronomy, terraformation, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering allowed Elohim to adapt life to Earth's thermal and chemical makeup. Yahweh gave materialistic explanations of"