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PHYS 0106 (Spring, 2001) Earth History Timeline |
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| Proterozoic Eon: Neoproterozoic | |||
Timeline Links Phanerozoic Neoproterozoic Mesoproterozoic Paleoproterozoic Archean Other Links Historical Geology Page Physical Geology Page Mike's Home Page |
Writer/Researcher: Erin McKenna Editor: Lynn Sniatkowski Web Page Builder: Erin McKenna When the word "Rodinia" comes to mind, many people automatically think "Pangea". They believe that these two landmasses are the same thing, but what they do not know is that they are not. Rodinia is one of the major super continents along with Pangea. This massive continent got its name from the Russian word for "motherland". The creation of this continent came about due to the shifting plates about 1100 million years ago, during the late Proterozoix era. The shape of Rodinia was very different that that of today. North America formed the core of this super continent. The East Coast of the North America was adjacent to the Western Coast of South America and the West Coast of North America lay next to Australia and Antartica.
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About 750 million years ago the location of Rodinia began to break apart close to the equator (see picture). During this time, plants had not yet evolved, and Rodinia was basically all rock. It broke itno three pieces that drifeted apart, as new ocean formed between the pieces. Christopher R. Scotese who worked on the "Paleomap Project" said that "North America rotated southwards towards the South Pole, which was covered with ice. The norther half of Rodinia, which was Antartica, Australia, India, and Arabia, rotated counterclockwise". The third piece of Rodinia which was called "the Congo Craton" was in the middle of the other two continents. Scotese also noted that towards the end of the Precambrian, the three pieces of land had collided together to form what was called Pannotia.