Reconstruction of Pangaea: Breakup and dispersion of continents, Permian to Present
Abstract
We present a new continental drift reconstruction of the universal continent of Pangaea in the Permian plus a series of five world maps to depict the breakup and dispersion of continents with each subsequent geologic period, Triassic to Recent. Plate tectonics and sea-floor spreading are accepted as the guiding rationale. Also utilized are the morphologic fitting of continental margins and paleomagnetic pole positions. Rigor is imposed by the geometric requirements involved in presenting continental drift dispersion on maps in orderly time sequence and by following certain assumed rules of plate tectonics. The reconstructions were first made on a globe and then transferred to an Aitoff world projection. In the Permian, the Atlantic and Indian oceans were closed so that all the continents were configured into the universal landmass of Pangaea. The reconstruction is based largely on the morphologic best fit of continental margins to the 1000-fathom isobath, except for India, the east coast of which is placed against Antarctica, as dictated by plate tectonics. In the Triassic the breakup of Pangaea commenced. The southwest Indian Ocean rift was created, which split West Gondwana (South America and Africa) away from East Gondwana while a Y junction lifted India off Antarctica. An independent North Atlantic–Caribbean rift also formed, which lifted Laurasia (North America and Eurasia) off of South America and the bulge of Africa. In the Jurassic, northward and westward sea-floor…
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