World Geography question? Two Parter Question?

Question

Before the continents were fromed there was one big continent. For get the name

Q1: What I want to know is what was it called when the continents were froming into what they are now, what was that called. Was it the Great Continental Devide?

Q2: Will this happen again, and is there a map online that will give us what the land will look like if it does happen again?

Answer 1

the state where all continents were one big continent was called pangaea. and the theory of there once being a pangaea and it dividing into smaller continents is called continental drift.  Continental drift is a theory by Alfred Wegner which was proven by Tuzo Williams that states that all contintents were once one big continent and that it drifted apart because convection currents given off by the heat radiating from the core of the earth pulled pangaea's tectonic plate apart.

Answer 2

The continent was called Pangaea.

I know there is such a thing called the "Supercontinent cycle" which takes about 300 to 500 million years to occur.  So we may have another supercontinent coming up soon.:-)

Answer 3

It is still happening right now - it just happens very very very slowly (and always has) - australia is moving north, india is still pushing up northwards, creating the Himalayas, America is moving away from Europe.

The movement hasn't stopped or slowed - it just takes a very long time for the effects to be obvious (millions and millions of years). America moving a couple of milimeters from Europe every couple of years won't make too much difference on the scale of things!

Answer 4

hi there,

History is my best subject before, I'm quiet retentive on these: people, events, places and dates.

i  have my history subject year 1988, i'm very passionate on this subject so i take time to search on your questions.

1. It is not a Great Continental Devide but it is Pangea (all the earth or Super-continent) that continent exists millions of years ago before even the earth was devided in stages or era(i.e mesozoic, paleozoic, jurassic, triasic etc); forming like a massive jigsaw puzzle, I believe Continental Devide comes after Pangea. In 1912 Alfred Wegner thorize the Continental Drift hence cited geographical, geological and paleontological evidence and proposed some 200 millions of years ago the world's continent is joined into one this now Pangea.

The Formation of Pangea

The separate continents of the Paleozoic, after having drifted apart through the fragmentation of the supercontinent of Rodinia, around 650 million years ago (Ediacaran period) eventually drifted together again during the Paleozoic, colliding to form the supercontinent of Pangea during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, some 350 million years ago.  More specifically Pangea was assembled by the collisions of three main blocks, Gondwana, Euramerica, and Siberia, during Permo-Carboniferous time, around 350 to 260 million years ago. Various smaller blocks, especially in southeastern Asia, were late arrivals. In the initial collision between Gondwana and the northern continents, South America abutted central Euramerica.  Modern Spain and central France are former pieces of Venezuela. Pangea was essentially complete by the Kungurian Age (late early Permian). A sliding motion then carried Gondwana 3500 kilometers westward, relative to the northern landmasses, until Africa was abutting North America by the Norian Age (Late Triassic), producing the classic Pangea configuration (E. Irving, Nature, Vol.270, 1977, p.304). [Nigel Calder, Timescale, p.264]

Pangea began to rift apart almost immediately.  However, the process of separation was prolonged for some 250-300 million years, resulting in roughly the modern series of separate continental blocks in the early to Mid-Cretaceous, some 130-100 million years ago.  However, for much of its long history the supercontinent was actually a series of large islands, separated from each other by shallow continental seas.

2. on your question #2, for me this will not happen again since almost all the land on earth were dispersed and other fragmented into smaller ones. You can visit this link to view what is Pangea looked compare to the land where we live now.

you can also visit this link:

http://www.palaeos.com/Earth/Geography/P...

Goodluck and God bless!

nonoy

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