How does the supercontinent cycle reshape Earth?

The supercontinent cycle is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust over hundreds of millions of years. Driven by plate tectonics, continental collision creates fewer, larger landmasses, while rifting tears them apart into smaller pieces. This ongoing reconfiguration has repeated multiple times throughout Earth's history, forming and breaking up landmasses like Pangaea.

What we know

• The supercontinent cycle involves the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust. [1, 2]
• One complete supercontinent cycle is estimated to take between 300 and 500 million years. [2]
• Continental collision creates fewer and larger continents, whereas rifting produces more and smaller continents. [2]
• Pangaea assembled approximately 335 million years ago and began to break apart about 175 million years ago. [3, 5]

Still open

• There are varying opinions among scientists as to whether the total amount of Earth's continental crust is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same.

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhat was Pangaea?
• how it workedHow does the Wilson Cycle drive plate tectonics?
• the bigger pictureWhat is a supercontinent?
• whenWhen will the next supercontinent form?
• compared withHow do continental collision and rifting compare?
• an unexpected connectionHow does the opening of the Atlantic Ocean relate to supercontinents?The Wilson Cycle connects the daily opening and closing of ocean basins directly to the massive assembly and disassembly phases of supercontinents.

Sources

• [1]supercontinent cycle (Wikidata Q955317) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Supercontinent cycle · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Supercontinent · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Wilson Cycle · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Pangaea · CC BY-SA 4.0

Your path

1. How do volcanic winters impact global climate?
2. /How does the supercontinent cycle reshape Earth?