List of supercontinents
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In reverse-chronological order (stratolithic order) comprising nearly all land at the time.
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[edit] Possible Future Supercontinents
- Pangaea Ultima or Amasia (~250 — ~400 million years from now)
- Australia-Antarctica-Afro-Eurasia (~130 million years from now - Antarctica merges with southern Australia or Asia (both of which form Australia-Afro-Eurasia.)
- Australia-Afro-Eurasia (~60 million years from now - Australia collides with Eastern Asia, creating new mountain ranges comparable to that of the Himalayas.)
[edit] Present-Day Supercontinents
- Afro-Eurasia (~ 5 mya present-day supercontinent)
- Americas (~ 15 mya present-day supercontinent)
- Eurasia (~ 60 mya present-day supercontinent)
[edit] Historical Supercontinents
- Gondwana (~600 — ~30 million years ago)
- Laurasia (~ 300 — ~60 million years ago)
- Pangaea (~300 — ~180 million years ago)
- Euramerica (~300 million years ago)
- Pannotia (~600 — ~540 million years ago)
- Rodinia (~1.1 Ga— ~750 million years ago)
- Columbia, also called Nuna, (~1.8 — 1.5 Ga ago)
- Nena (~1.8 Ga)
- Kenorland (~2.7 Ga. Neoarchean sanukitoid cratons and new continental crust formed Kenorland. Protracted tectonic magna plume rifting occurred 2.48 to 2.45 Ga and this contributed to the Paleoproterozoic glacial events in 2.45 to 2.22 Ga. Final breakup occurred ~2.1 Ga.)
- Ur (~3 Ga ago, though probably not a supercontinent; but still however, the earliest known continent. Ur, however, was probably the largest, perhaps even the only continent three billion years ago, so one can argue that Ur was a supercontinent for its time, even if it was smaller than Australia is today). Still, an older rock formation now located in Greenland dates back from Hadean times.
- Komatii Formation (3.475 Ga)
- Vaalbara (~3.6 Ga ago. Evidence is the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia and the world-wide Archean greenstone belts that were subsequently spread out across Gondwana and Laurasia)
- Yilgarn (Zircon crystals from the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane, Yilgarn craton, Western Australia and also 300 km. south point to a continental crust formation between 4.4-4.3 Ga. Evidence is the high Oxygen-18 values of 8.5 and micro-inclusions of SiO2 in these zircon crystals consistent with growth from a granitic source supracrustal material, low-temperature interactions and a liquid ocean.)
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