Around 500-600 million years ago a large continent formed by the merging of numerous continents, it was known as Pangaea. The forceful movement of the tectonic plates resulted in Pangaea being split into two smaller land masses. These two smaller land masses were identified as Gondwana and Laurasia. The splitting of Gondwana and Laurasia occurred around 230-280 million years ago.
Gondwana or ‘Gondwanaland’ was a primeval supercontinent and was once the southern land mass of Pangaea. Gondwana consisted of not only continents but countries too. Today they are known as South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Throughout the existence of this supercontinent the climate was both wet and warm. The warm weather being quite warmer than what it is like now in the 21st century. This was because of the fact dinosaurs still roamed the earth throughout the time when Gondwana was still a supercontinent, the Antarctic ice sheet was non-existent and the majority of Gondwana was covered with vegetation.
PARAGRAPH 2: - 150-300 (broke apart) tectonic movement (continental drift)
- Explain how the continents moved apart.
- Specifically explain the Continental Drift theory
- Explain where the continents moved to.
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However, this supercontinent didn’t stay as one for too long. Gondwana began to separate 170-180 million years ago. This was caused by continental drift which meant that the crustal plates of the earth were being dragged because of the movement in the deeper layer of rock in the mantle. Evidently volcanoes and earthquakes were two major factors in the movement of the continents. Black volcanic rocks known as Basalt excreted from the volcanic eruptions onto the sea floor in ocean areas which was called mid oceanic ridges. Adjacent plates of the sea floor were forced apart as a result of