![]() This is seen primarily in fossil records of both flora and fauna found all over the globe. Further, there is evidence which backs the idea that all continents were once one megacontinent, ie Pangea. These natural phenomena and geographical features indicate the deeper movements below the Earth’s crust, which can be tracked and traced to piece together a historical picture of how the continents have moved, in which ways the crust has broken and reformed, and the drifts and shifts that have occurred over time. The formation and evidence of mountain ranges, rift valleys, and volcanic activity around plate borders and fault lines has greatly contributed to scientists’ understanding of tectonic plate movement and drift. Scientists' deeper understanding of plate tectonics have helped to specify movements and patterns in the Earth’s crust in a way in which previous theories of ‘Continental Drift’ could not. While the creation and later separation of Pangea is of course, speculative, as humans did not exist at this time, there is a great deal of evidence to back these theories. Proof Of A Single Landmass Map of Pangea. This process is continually happening, it just occurs at such a slow rate by human terms, that we do not see any significant shifts in a human lifetime, or even in the history of humans in general. This can be assumed in part due to the fact that continents and tectonic plates - large plates of the Earth’s crust that make up the surface of our planet - are constantly in motion, drifting apart or butting together. ![]() Likely, this continental formation was created from the coming together of other continents and land masses on Earth. It is estimated that Pangea was originally formed some 335 million years ago, but was perhaps not the first or only continental form. This name stems from the Greek word ‘pan’ meaning all or whole, and Gaia which refers to Mother Earth. This time period, between 280 million and 230 million years before present, was known as the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic Era, and it was during these periods that Earth consisted of one collective ocean, called Panthalassa, and one single land mass or supercontinent known as Pangea. ![]() Nearly 300 million years ago, the geography of the Earth was drastically different than it is today.
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