Do you know what is Pangaea? Or Panthalassa?
How about Vaalbara!?
It is a SUPER fact!
It is an old story!
Super old in fact!
Now if you are a little knowledgeable you may know Pangea!
Pangaea means “all earth” in ancient Greek!
It was a super continent!
Ages ago, all of Earth’s continents were connected into one giant supercontinent called Pangaea about 300 million years ago!
It was fully formed around 300 to 299 million years ago and began to break apart about 200 million years ago!
Now if the land or earth was one then even the ocean must be one!
This huge global ocean called Panthalassa surrounded this massive landmass.
Then slowly the heat from inside the Earth moved giant pieces of the crust (called tectonic plates). These plates slowly pulled apart, forming the separate continents we see today!
We know this because the edges of continents like South America and Africa look like puzzle pieces that fit together!
Also we do have matching fossils found several thousand Kms apart! Scientists find identical ancient plant and animal fossils on opposite sides of vast oceans, proving those lands were once joined!
Then again you also must know that Pangaea is just the most recent supercontinent.
The fact is that Earth’s plates cycle and merge into a supercontinent every 300 to 500 million years!
There are in fact many Past Supercontinents!
One of them are the Vaalbara & Kenorland which were the Ancient supercontinents that formed billions of years ago in Earth’s early history.
Then you have the Columbia or Nuna which was formed about 1.8 to 1.4 billion years ago!
Don’t worry only two more to go!
Rodinia and Pannotia, the former of which were Assembled around 1.1 billion years ago and later broke apart leading to an ice age while the latter formed roughly 650 million years ago before splitting up!
Then finally you get your Pangaea which is the most famous and recent supercontinent, which formed about 320 million years ago and later split into Laurasia and Gondwana!
So ages back you could have taken your car and driven all the way to the US from Bharat; stopping for some OIL and food breaks of course just like movie breaks!
Speaking of which reminds me of Petla “Puri” Jagannadh! Still feel his movie Pokkiri was an absolute entertainer!
Now before your brain thinks about continental drift; you can drift to sleep instead!
Shubh ratri!
