What Is The Break Up Of Gondwana

About 225 million years, all of the world’s land was contained in one supercontinent, named Pangea. This supercontinent would eventually separate itself into the continents that are known today, due to continuous movement of the earth’s tectonic plates, which led to major shifting and folding of the earth’s crust. This shifting formed many of the mountain ranges that exist today, such as the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains. However, the time of Pangea’s separation into multiple continents and the time of the formation of the mountain ranges aren’t synonymous; for instance, the Appalachians were most likely formed before Pangea’s separation. About some 2 million years ago, a Great Ice Age befell the earth, which caused a

200 million years ago a supercontinent called Gondwana existed. It was made up of South America, Africa, Australia, India, and Antarctica. Fossil evidence shows that certain species have lived in multiple places, but these places are far apart. This proves that they lived in one place, but were separated from their ancestors when the plates split, causing earthquakes. In addition,

It is said during the Archean period, the temperature of Earth was higher than compared to during the Wopmay orogen tectonism. This was the case because of the heavy, widespread and firm crust of the Earth. Likewise the Cordillera found in modern day west part of Canada, orogeny has three structurally

Ice ages are well documented in Earth’s history, and they are proven to be relatively frequent. But what if that ice age persisted over not just regions near the poles, but around the equator as well? The term “snowball Earth” refers to a condition where Earth is completely covered by ice. Evidence indicates that snowball Earth may have been around in the Neoproterozoic. In fact, evidence points to the conclusion that these conditions happened three separate times in the Neoproterozoic. A snowball Earth condition is hard to prove, but this theory may explain several different phenomena. However, it is not accepted by all, there is evidence against a snowball Earth as well. Some believe that a snowball Earth would not have been possible in past climate conditions while there are views that defend the idea of more of a ‘slushball’ Earth rather than a planet entirely frozen on the surface.

Approximately, the world oceans were 100 to 200 meters (330 to 660 feet) higher in the Early Cretaceous period and 200 to 250 meters (330 to 660 feet) higher in the Late Cretaceous than the sea level of today. This major influence to the physical landscape resulted from increased volcanism due to the final breakup of Pangaea. The increase of global mid-ocean ridge volcanism helped to raise global sea levels by melting polar ice. This caused marine waters to inundate the continents, creating relatively shallow inland seas in North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Africa, and Australia. The surface area of the continents was greatly reduced. During the marine highstand – a time during which sea levels are at their highest – land covered only roughly 18 percent of the Earth’s surface, compared with 2 percent today. This occurrence in the Cretaceous period resulted in extensive formation of chalk and other marine limestone, a type of rock created under warm, shallow marine conditions. Due to the system’s thickness and relatively recent occurrence, Cretaceous rocks croup out in several locations around the

This subduction zone was called the Tethyan Trench. This trench might have suducted called the Tethyan mid-ocean ridge, a ridge responsible for the Tethys Ocean's expansion. It probably caused Africa, India and Australia to move northward. In the Early Cretaceous, Atlantica, today's South America and Africa, finally separated from eastern Gondwana which involve Antarctica, India and Australia, causing the opening of South Indian Ocean. In the Middle Cretaceous, Gondwana fragmented to open up the South Atlantic Ocean as South America started to move to the west away from Africa.

The fifth, and one of the largest and most well known extinctions in Earths history was the Cretaceous period, where many species, including the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, disappeared. This period was widely known as the K-T period, K being the traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous Period derived from the German name Kreidezeit, and T being the abbreviation for the Tertiary Period (a historical term for the period of time now covered by the Paleogene and Neogene periods). It was a relatively warm climate and had high global sea levels. The oceans and seas were populated with now extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, and the land by dinosaurs. At the same time, new groups of mammals and birds as well as flowering plants appeared. The early part of the Cretaceous showed a cooling trend that had been

These techniques led to the discovery of the boundary between the two eras. A single thin layer of clay found within predominantly limestone rocks established this. By comparing the marine life found in, above, and below the clay, the marine life, like the dinosaurs, had been terribly affected by the extinction event. The percentage of life in the upper layers was dramatically lower than that in the lower. This was far more compelling than what was suggested by dinosaur’s fossils.

The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, also known as the K-T extinction, was a global extinction event that struck the Yucatan Peninsula at the end of the end of the Mesozoic Era, 65 million years ago. Walter Alvarez first discovered a meteorite big enough to be called a small asteroid that hit the Earth, creating the Chicxulub crater. Once the asteroid struck the North American continent, there were igneous rocks underneath the crater that contained high levels of a rare siderophile element, iridium. This catrostopic event had a massive effect on the environment, as several mammals, birds, and plants became extinct. It also caused an impact winter that made it impossible for plants and plankton to photosynthesis, as 75% of inland animals and 90% of marine species were affected. Not only did it cause an impact winter, but the asteroid also caused volcanic eruptions, climate change and sea level rise. Geologists have also found rich dinosaur, plant and marine fossils to illustrate the K-T extinction. This event not only caused species to become extinct, but it also had an adaptive radiation, as other species were able to diversify.

The Permian Time frame was the last time of the Paleozoic Time. Enduring from 299 million to 251 million years back, it took after the Carboniferous Time frame and went before the Triassic Time frame. By the early Permian, the two-extraordinary mainland’s of the Paleozoic, Gondwana and Euramerica, had crashed to frame the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea was formed like a thickened letter "C." The best bend of the "C" comprised of landmasses that would later wind up present-day Europe and Asia.

Throughout the Pleistocene ice ages, large areas of the earth were covered by vast ice sheets. Global sea levels dropped up to 120 metres below present-day coastlines, exposing large areas of land that were once flooded by shallow seas. These lands became colonised by vegetation, animals, birds and insects over time. During the Ice Age, the island continent to the south-east of Asia comprised New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania as a single land mass. Separating this continent from Asia was a narrow sea about one hundred kilometres wide, over which the first ocean crossings were made sometime before 60,000 years ago.

“A minority disputes this theory, arguing that other events-such as volcanic eruptions, sea-level changes or a series of impacts-were to blame for the spectacular loss of species that occurred at the transition between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods…”

According to the research made by Alvarez (1980), it was due to an asteroid impact that single-handedly destroyed dinosaurs to extinction. Advocacy of this mechanism has been aided by the availability and tangibility of supporting evidence in the form of impact craters- the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula's date and timing of impact (dating produced an almost exact date of 65 million years ago), location, enormous size-170 km (Hildebrand et al.1991) and its high iridium content ( a metal not commonly found at the Earth's surface) make it seem that with a theoretical asteroid 10 km big caused the crater great damage at the end of the Cretaceous (Alvarez et al. 1980).

Gerta Keller, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, has recently conducted research on the Chicxulub asteroid in which she analyzed new core samples taken from the asteroid site (Botzer 2004). These samples indicate that the impact that occurred at Chicxulub actually predated the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary about sixty-five million years ago. Keller claims that the Chicxulub impact occurred approximately 300,000 years before the extinction (Keller 2004). Although previous researchers estimated that the Chicxulub asteroid was the cause of the extinctions, there had always been doubts about the exact age and size of the crater, and about the origin of the “mega tsunami deposits” that were located within the crater (Keller 2004). The focus of Keller’s recent research was on finding some answers to these questions. To do so she analyzed Cretaceous limestone, dolomite, and anhydrite deposits as the site of the Chicxulub crater (Keller 2004).

In this digital age we have a tendency to be extensively dependent on electronics particularly on mobile devices. There are various mobile electronic devices: laptop, tablet, and cellular phone to name a few. In the early 1990’s even with the bulkiness students started bringing cellular phones to school back then. Schools began to place a restriction on the use of mobile phones in the classroom. Initially, the cell phone was only able to make calls and receive calls. Now, the cell phone or more commonly named smart phone is the most favorable with students since they are able to stay connected to a wide variety of social media. For example, “Students can access the Internet, send or receive text messages, check email, and even video chat with others quite literally from the palm of their hand” (Kuznekoff, Titsworth 234).