Pangée (unintermitting)

Formation

Its formation is due to the collision of the supercontinents Protogondwana and Laurussia which entered in collision at the beginning of the Carbonifère (orogenesis Hercynien), closing the Océan Centralien and raising imposing assembly lines, said Hercynien born, active from the the Appalachian Mountains to the solid mass Silesia N. At the same time the Craton of Siberia and Kazakhstania enter in collision with Laurussia on its Eastern edge, closing the Océan Ouralien and raising the chain of the the Ural. At the end of the Permian , the formation of Pangée is completed. One names the vast ocean surrounding Pangée Panthalassa (ancestor of the Pacific Ocean) and the vast ocean located at the East, in the hollow of the crescent formed by Pangée, ocean Téthys. The formation of supercontinent Pangée had important consequences on the life: the length of the coasts, and thus the surface of coastal water which shelters the majority of the marine species, were considerably reduced. It followed an important marine extinction from there. Lastly, on ground, the distance of the grounds of Pangée power station (North America, South America and Africa) compared to the sea led to a strong fall of the Précipitation S in these areas and, therefore, the gigantic expansion Désert S.

Geography of Pangée to the Permian one

After its formation, with Permian, the near total of the grounds are integral parts of Pangée. Only Craton of Yangtse (China southernmost), part of Indo-China and the terrane of Cimmérie are has share, in the Téthys Ocean. Pangée takes the shape of C, whose center is on Ecuador. It is barred, on the level of the equator, of a vast assembly line running of is in west, the Chaîne hercynienne. All the central zone, of the Southern 40° to the Northern 40°, is made of vast deserts which cover the majority of current North America, of the South, Africa and Europe. The North of Europe (zone of the North Sea) is covered with an inland sea not very deep, very salted, and episodically connected to the Ocean. Europe is separated from Siberia by a narrow not very deep sea, which connects Panthalassa to the North of the Téthys in the south. This sea is bordered of with dimensions Siberian by the chain of the the Ural. Siberia the Antarctic and India enjoy a moderate climate.

Dislocation

Pangée starts to be fractured at the end of the Trias (~200 million years) by a Rift separating North America and Africa. This rift was to be similar to the current rift of the Vallée of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, because located at the same desert tropical latitudes. One found there many évaporite S. This rift opened the ocean Atlantique northern and separated the northern part of the southern part of new Pangée to form two supercontinents: the Gondwana and the Laurasia. The opening of this ocean brought back moisture in the arid areas.

Consequences

From the climatic point of view, the existence of several continental masses supports the oceanic currents, and the interactions between the seamen circle and continental, bringing precipitations and multiplying the chances to see appearing new species, some like the Marsupiaux having evolved/moved independently in Australia and South America, which were isolated from the other continental masses.

External bonds

Pangée, Continental drift, and Plate tectonics (Fr)

Paleomap Project (pr. Chistopher Scotese) (in)

History of the continental drift (in)

Video Pangée (in)

Simple: Pangaea