Continental drift describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time. He called this movement continental drift. Pangaea. Wegener was convinced that all of Earth’s continents were once part of an enormous, single landmass called Pangaea.

continental drift

According to the theory of continental drift, the world was made up of a single continent through most of geologic time. That continent eventually separated and drifted apart, forming into the seven continents we have today.

They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.

Pangaea Proxima

That would create a supercontinent called Amasia that would form at the top of the Earth. Eventually it would slump south toward the equator. And under this scenario, Antarctica might remain isolated at the bottom of the world.

The Atlantic Ocean

The last supercontinent, Pangea, formed around 310 million years ago, and started breaking up around 180 million years ago. It has been suggested that the next supercontinent will form in 200-250 million years, so we are currently about halfway through the scattered phase of the current supercontinent cycle.

Pangea’s existence was first proposed in 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener as a part of his theory of continental drift. Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”

Alfred Wegener