Open AccessWhatever happened to Gondwana?
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
astronomy & geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.168
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1468-4004
pISSN - 1366-8781
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-4004.2008.49304_13.x
Subject(s) - gondwana , supercontinent , geology , paleontology , tectonics , craton
The combination of continents into supercontinents, and their subsequent fragmentation and rearrangement is an accepted part of the history of the Earth, but how it happens in detail is not always clear. Did supercontinents split into a few large pieces, or were many small fragments formed in the break‐up? Now geophysical measurements have answered this conundrum – which has implications for later continental reconstructions – for the break‐up of Gondwana, the supercontinent that existed from about 500–180 million years ago.