What is the supercontinent?

Supercontinent Cycle is a geological cycle where the Earth continents alternatively connect with a single supercontinent, divided into many continents and then connect again. The cycle is estimated at 300 - 500 million years. Supercontinent cycle is simply the result of geometry; Given that about 29% of the Earth's surface consists of continents based on tectonic plates moving roughly in a random way, after some time these continents eventually aggregate and hold. But they will not stick forever - rifting events between continental plates cause to break again and the supercontinent cycle continues.

The previous supercontinents included Panga, which created 250 million years ago, Gondananaland, which created about 600 million years ago, a family that existed by ~ 1.1 billion up to ~ 750 million years, Columbia, which existed before ~ ​​1.8 to 1.5 million years ago. 2.8 billion years. PreviouslyThe Earth did not have much continental bark, and therefore no supercontinent cycle.

Earth may be remarkably different depending on where the land mainland is in the super -contact cycle and where they are located on the Earth's surface. For example, when the continent has stopped around the pole, as is the case with Antarctica, the growth of the ice layer throughout the continent, which significantly reduces the temperatures around the pole. Cold water absorbs heat from equatorial currents and lowers temperature around the world.

Generally, the coast of the world are wetter places and all the more contribute to life. When the world's mainland is in the super -contact phase of the super -contact cycle, the world coast will decrease and the center of the Turns supercontinent into a huge desert. 250 million years ago, at the dawn of the Mesozoic, the center of the continent of the Pangea was a huge desert, wandering several vertebrates of Tetrapod, who survived the Permian-Triassic extics before him.