Supercontinents in earth history

Abstract

Understanding the formation of cratons and orogenic belts is critical to the modelling of supercontinental assemblies. Continental cratons began to assemble by 3000 Ma or possibly earlier. The oldest assembly, Ur, was followed by Arctica at ∼2500 Ma and Atlantica at ∼2000 Ma. These three continental blocks apparently remained coherent until the breakup of Pangea. Nearly all of earth's continental blocks were assembled into one large landmass during at least three times in earth history. The oldest assembly comparable in size to Pangea was probably Columbia, which formed at ∼1800 Ma and began to rift at -1500 Ma. Columbia was followed by Rodinia, which lasted from ∼1100 Ma to 700 Ma. East and West Gondwana combined to form Gondwana at ∼500 Ma, and it joined with Laurasia to form Pangea at -250 Ma.