Pangaea: The Supercontinent

• Laurasia: supercontinent comprised of North America and most of Europe.
• Gondwana: supercontinent composed of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and Indo-Pakistan.
• Tethys Sea: sea that formed between Laurasia and Gondwana.
• Pangaea: supercontinent formed of "all the Earth"; derived from Greek words "pan" (all) and "gaia" (earth).
• Pangaea's formation: result of continental drift, a process where tectonic plates collide and separate, floating on a fluid mantle of magma.
• Pangaea map: first proposed by Wegener based on the observation of South America and Africa's complementary coastlines and the distribution of fossils and geological features across oceans.
• Tectonic plate movement: continents move 2.5 cm a year, allowing scientists to determine the past and future positions based on plate movement.
• Supercontinent breakup: began approximately 200 million years ago, with the formation of the Tethys Sea.
• Gondwana: began to break apart 150 million years later, forming the Atlantic ocean between South America and Africa.
• Laurasia: broke into North America, Europe, and Asia approximately 66-30 million years ago.
• Tectonic plates: 15 largest tectonic plates of the Earth in constant motion, causing landforms and shaping continents.
• Evidence for Pangaea's existence: Wegener's observations of continents seemingly fitting together, fossil distribution, and rock strata patterns.
• Pre-Wegener theories: before Wegener's work, the common explanation for the wide distribution of similar fossils on different continents was the existence of land bridges.

Key facts and context about the formation and evidence of the supercontinent Pangaea.