What Is Pangaea? About The Supercontinent In The Late Paleozolic
PANGAEA – In this topic, we are going to learn and discuss about the supercontinent in the late Paleozolic era called Pangaea.
Also spelt as Pangea and as mentioned above, it is a supercontinent that existed in the late Paleozolic and Mesozoic eras.
The continent is composed of early continental units at about 335 million years ago until it broke apart at around 175 million years ago.
The supercontinent is located in the center of the equator and is bordered by a superocean called Panthalassa. It is, by far, the first that geologist reconstructed and the most recent to have existed.
The name is derived from two Ancient Greek term pan (πᾶν) which means all, entire, whole; and Gaia (Γαῖα) which means Mother Earth or land.
The supercontinent was first proposed by German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener, who also began the scientific theory of continental drift.
Wegener also noted that before the continent broke up and drifted to their current locations that we know today, all of this formed a single supercontinent called the “Urkontinent”.