Continental Drift
Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It was made of many continents that we know today. It broke up a long time ago because of something called Continental Drift. Continental drift is what it is called when the tectonic plates move around and rearrange and reshape the continents. Gondwana was made up of 5 main pieces; Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica. Gondwana existed roughly 300-180 million years ago. Its climate was fairly mild, but slightly warmer than the world we live in today. It was big enough to stretch from the South Pole all the way to the equator. It is sometimes known as Gondwaland, but usually gets called Gondwana. It formed from the remains when Pangea broke up, hundreds of millions of years ago. Several continents and “Microcontinents” eventually crashed into each other and combined to create the supercontinent Gondwana. …show more content…
This is called continental drift. It is always happening, very slowly, but it is still definitely happing right beneath us all the time. The tectonic plates are moving incredibly slowly, at a rate of about 5-10 centimetres every year. Continental drift occurs because hot liquid magma is rolling around underneath the surface of the earth with a convection current. The current of the flowing magma moves plates that are resting atop it. The magma pulls the tectonic plates around and away from each other and sometimes back into each other. When the supercontinent Gondwana broke up, each piece went in a different direction. South America went west, Africa stayed mostly in the same position, Antarctica went south, Australia went east and India went
Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It was made of many continents that we know today. It broke up a long time ago because of something called Continental Drift. Continental drift is what it is called when the tectonic plates move around and rearrange and reshape the continents. Gondwana was made up of 5 main pieces; Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica. Gondwana existed roughly 300-180 million years ago. Its climate was fairly mild, but slightly warmer than the world we live in today. It was big enough to stretch from the South Pole all the way to the equator. It is sometimes known as Gondwaland, but usually gets called Gondwana. It formed from the remains when Pangea broke up, hundreds of millions of years ago. Several continents and “Microcontinents” eventually crashed into each other and combined to create the supercontinent Gondwana. …show more content…
This is called continental drift. It is always happening, very slowly, but it is still definitely happing right beneath us all the time. The tectonic plates are moving incredibly slowly, at a rate of about 5-10 centimetres every year. Continental drift occurs because hot liquid magma is rolling around underneath the surface of the earth with a convection current. The current of the flowing magma moves plates that are resting atop it. The magma pulls the tectonic plates around and away from each other and sometimes back into each other. When the supercontinent Gondwana broke up, each piece went in a different direction. South America went west, Africa stayed mostly in the same position, Antarctica went south, Australia went east and India went