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Earth's continents are constantly changing, moving and rearranging themselves over millions of years - affecting Earth's climate and biology. Every few hundred million years, the continents ...
Columbia, also known as Nuna or Hudsonland, was one of Earth's ancient supercontinents.It was first proposed by John J.W. Rogers and M. Santosh in 2002 and is thought to have existed approximately , in the Paleoproterozoic Era.The assembly of the supercontinent was likely completed during global-scale collisional events from 2100 to 1800 million years ago.
Ur is a hypothetical supercontinent that formed in the Archean (3.1 billion).. In a reconstruction by Rodgers, Ur is half a billion years older than Arctica and, in the early period of its existence, it was probably the only continent on Earth, and as such can be considered a supercontinent, though it was probably smaller than present-day Australia.
The third kind of orogenic belt is a confined orogenic belt which is the closure of small basins. The assembly of a supercontinent would have to show intracratonic orogenic belts. However, interpretation of orogenic belts can be difficult. The collision of Gondwana and Laurasia occurred in the late Palaeozoic.
Many studies of the Milankovitch fluctuations during supercontinent time periods have focused on the Mid- Cretaceous. Present amplitudes of Milankovitch cycles over present-day Eurasia may be mirrored in both the southern and northern hemispheres of the supercontinent Pangaea. Climate modeling shows that summer fluctuations varied 14–16 degrees Celsius on Pangaea, which is similar or slightly higher than summer temperatures of Eurasia during the Pleistocene. The largest-amplitude Milankovitch cycles are expected to have been at mid-to high-latitudes during the Triassic and Jurassic.
The Neoarchean supercontinent consisted of Superia and Sclavia.
Secular trends such as carbonatites, granulites, eclogites, and greenstone belt deformation events are all possible indicators of Precambrian supercontinent cyclicity, although the Protopangea- Paleopangea solution implies that Phanerozoic style of supercontinent cycles did not operate during these times. Also, there are instances where these secular trends have a weak, uneven, or absent imprint on the supercontinent cycle; secular methods for supercontinent reconstruction will produce results that have only one explanation, and each explanation for a trend must fit in with the rest.
There is a sharp decrease in passive margins between 500 and 350 Ma during the timing of Pangaea's assembly.
The causes of supercontinent assembly and dispersal are thought to be driven by convection processes in Earth's mantle. Approximately 660 km into the mantle, a discontinuity occurs, affecting the surface crust through processes like plumes and superplumes (aka large low-shear-velocity provinces ). When a slab of the subducted crust is denser than the surrounding mantle, it sinks to discontinuity. Once the slabs build up, they will sink through to the lower mantle in what is known as a "slab avalanche". This displacement at the discontinuity will cause the lower mantle to compensate and rise elsewhere. The rising mantle can form a plume or superplume.
The second model (Kenorland-Arctica) is based on both palaeomagnetic and geological evidence and proposes that the continental crust comprised a single supercontinent from ~2.72 Ga until break-up during the Ediacaran Period after ~0.573 Ga.
The third kind of orogenic belt is a confined orogenic belt which is the closure of small basins. The assembly of a supercontinent would have to show intracratonic orogenic belts. However, interpretation of orogenic belts can be difficult. The collision of Gondwana and Laurasia occurred in the late Palaeozoic.
Many studies of the Milankovitch fluctuations during supercontinent time periods have focused on the Mid- Cretaceous. Present amplitudes of Milankovitch cycles over present-day Eurasia may be mirrored in both the southern and northern hemispheres of the supercontinent Pangaea. Climate modeling shows that summer fluctuations varied 14–16 degrees Celsius on Pangaea, which is similar or slightly higher than summer temperatures of Eurasia during the Pleistocene. The largest-amplitude Milankovitch cycles are expected to have been at mid-to high-latitudes during the Triassic and Jurassic.
The Neoarchean supercontinent consisted of Superia and Sclavia.
Secular trends such as carbonatites, granulites, eclogites, and greenstone belt deformation events are all possible indicators of Precambrian supercontinent cyclicity, although the Protopangea- Paleopangea solution implies that Phanerozoic style of supercontinent cycles did not operate during these times. Also, there are instances where these secular trends have a weak, uneven, or absent imprint on the supercontinent cycle; secular methods for supercontinent reconstruction will produce results that have only one explanation, and each explanation for a trend must fit in with the rest.
There is a sharp decrease in passive margins between 500 and 350 Ma during the timing of Pangaea's assembly.
The causes of supercontinent assembly and dispersal are thought to be driven by convection processes in Earth's mantle. Approximately 660 km into the mantle, a discontinuity occurs, affecting the surface crust through processes like plumes and superplumes (aka large low-shear-velocity provinces ). When a slab of the subducted crust is denser than the surrounding mantle, it sinks to discontinuity. Once the slabs build up, they will sink through to the lower mantle in what is known as a "slab avalanche". This displacement at the discontinuity will cause the lower mantle to compensate and rise elsewhere. The rising mantle can form a plume or superplume.
The second model (Kenorland-Arctica) is based on both palaeomagnetic and geological evidence and proposes that the continental crust comprised a single supercontinent from ~2.72 Ga until break-up during the Ediacaran Period after ~0.573 Ga.