Pangaea
A puzzle of epic proportions The super continent of Pangaea was once made up of all the land masses we recognize on our earth today. Take a look at our maps…can you see how the continents fit together?
Pangaea
Pangaea
Pangaea Questions What does “Pangaea” mean anyways? What exactly is Pangaea… ? How do we know what it was like 200 million years ago if no one is alive to tell us about it? What happened to Pangaea, how did it separate? If the continents moved around millions of years ago how do we know they won’t do it again? These are ALL good questions… Lets see if we can find out for ourselves!
Define Pangaea… The word Pangaea comes from Greek words “pan” and “gaia” “pan” meaning “entire” “gaia” meaning “earth” Therefore Pangaea literally means “Entire Earth.” Which seems fitting because it was composed of every land mass on the entire Earth! LINK
What is Pangaea? Pangaea is a super continent that is said to have existed from the Permian through the Jurassic period in our earth’s history.
What is Pangaea? Alfred Wegner first suggested the existence of Pangaea while exploring his theory of continental drift. He theorized that millions of years ago the continents were all formed together in one land mass that he called Pangaea. Alfred couldn’t explain what force had the power to move the continents, but his evidence had him convinced of his theory. Alfred Wegner (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Contdrift.shtml)
What evidence? There are a few sources of evidence supporting the existence of Pangaea… Fossils Rocks and minerals Matching coastlines (like puzzle pieces!) Plate tectonics
ROCKS The same rock patterns were found in South America, India, Africa, Antarctica and Australia. How could this be true?
READ THE ARTICLE ON ROCKS!
FOSSILS Plant and animal fossils found on the coastlines of different continents
READ THE ARTICLE ON FOSSILS!
:Look again at the puzzle like coastlines on the map of Pangaea?
Plate Tectonics Tectonic plates have been moving for millions of years. If they use computers to back track the movement of the plates over time, scientists can tell that all of the continents were once together around 225 million years ago and that the continents have slowly separated over time into the places they are now.
Read The Article on Tectonic Plates
ANCIENT CLIMATES Tropical plant remains (coal deposits) found in Antarctica also were the same… Glaciation in Africa, South America, India, and Australia happened during the same time
Continental Drift Theory Proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 250 million years ago, all of the continents were combined into one super-continent called “Pangaea” The continents gradually drifted apart to where they are today
Continental Drift Theory
Theory of Continental Drift
Do you guys remember learning about plate tectonics? Alfred’s theory of continental drift inspired other scientists to develop the theory we know today as plate tectonics. This answered his troublesome question regarding what force was strong enough to move continents. Now that we know about continental and oceanic plates, Alfred’s theory on the existence of Pangaea has been confirmed by Scientists.
Since all the continents were joined in one land mass (Pangaea), the remaining area of our earth was covered in ocean! This ocean is referred to as, Panthalassa.