Wie sah die Erde zur Zeit von Pangaea aus? | Dokumentation Geschichte der Erde - Erdgeschichte

six continents separated by enormous expanses of water, that is the familiar image of our planet that we all know from our childhood, but the Earth has not always been like this. Over the past 4.6 billion years, our planet has gone through many geological epochs. , in some of these times almost the entire surface of the planet was covered with ice, in other times the polar caps melted completely in the distant past the continents were not arranged as they are today the blocks of land moved relative to each other, which which led to the movements that led to the collision of continents and the formation of supercontinents almost the entire earth's mass was connected to each other about 335 million years ago there was only one supercontinent that occupied a large part of the earth's surface this continent was called Pangea which in Greek means all the earth or all the countries later, about 200 million years ago, this enormous land mass began to move through tectonic plates breaking and dividing into the continents we know today.

The idea of ​​all the continents fitting together like a puzzle is incredible. It's also incredible that earthquakes and plate tectonics were able to bring so much land together to create the world we know. Life like today in the time of Pangea was different from today. The climate was warmer and drier and the plants and animals were completely different. Most animals became extinct en masse. Amphibians tried to adapt in different ways to new conditions, some became larger or, on the contrary, smaller, others put on denser shells to better store precious body moisture, unusual animals appeared. As for flora, ferns, mosses and horsetails have almost disappeared, but drought-resistant plants like conifers are spreading like a mystical world in which the earth has always existed with rails and in which animals and Plants live in places that we cannot even imagine, dear traveler, good morning, today we will take a trip back in time to the era of the last supercontinent that the earth knew before you left to find a unique and mysterious one.

To explore the world remember to like the video and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss anything thank you and have a good trip the word Pangea comes from the Greek words Pan for everything and Gaia for earth, which means all countries. This name perfectly describes the supercontinent because Pangea was once a single country as all the countries were gathered in one place. So a super continent is a continent that encompasses most or all of the land mass. The most recent supercontinent that encompassed all the major landmasses and is probably the most famous on Earth was Pangea.

Super continents have grown together and separated sporadically throughout Earth's history. Remember that the geological history of the Earth is a series of events in the development of the Earth as a planet. These events include the formation of rocks, the creation and destruction of landforms, the rise and fall of various ice ages, as well as the appearance and disappearance of living things. The most modern definition emphasizes that a supercontinent is a geological formation that, through its structure, influences the distribution of heat fluxes of air masses on Earth, etc. It is a large structure, but not necessarily all of them.

Continental blocks united in ancient times, all continents formed a single whole, the supercontinent Pangea. This huge continent was formed about 335 million years ago in the Paleozuicum. Many of the geological, paleontological, paleoclimatic and geodetic data currently available can be consulted. As clear evidence that the continents were next to each other and then separated, ocean basins opened in the middle, which were once part of a single planetary structure of gigantic dimensions. Systems arose at the points where they joined, some of which still exist today, for example, the Ural Mountains or the Appalachians. These early mountains are much older than relatively young mountain systems, such as the Alps in Europe, the Cordillera in North America, the Andes in South America or the Himalayas in Asia.

As a result of erosion over millions of years, the Urals and Appalachians are now the low mountain ranges of most of this supercontinent concentrated in the southern hemisphere, the only ocean in the area was called Pantalassa's life during Pangea was different To today, the climate was warmer and the fauna and flora were completely different. Pangea split into two continents in the north 150 to 220 million years ago. The continent Laurasia then split into Eurasia and North America, while the southern continent gave rise. a Gondwana Land Africa South America India Australia and Antarctica Supercontinents such as Rodinia already existed, which separated about 750 million years ago and the continents are predicted to merge into one in the future.

The supercontinents called Pointa Ultima will number about 250 million. years in which Africa, America and Eurasia collide. Since the 17th century, scientists have tried to explain the origin of our planet and its characteristic topography. In this context, the famous English physicist Robert Hook, a jealous rival of Newton, highlighted the fact that remains of marine animals were found far from the sea and it was concluded that the contours of the seas and land had changed several times over the course of time. history of the Earth, however, at the beginning of the 20th century, most geographers believed that the relationship between various and the continents had changed since the ancient world had not changed the relief of the planet had only changed because its interior had been been cooling and contracting unevenly, others thought that the mountains were formed by the accumulation of sedimentary rocks.

Science thanks the German meteorologist and astronomer Alfred Wegener for the various justifications of two fundamental geological ideas: first, the idea of ​​continental drift. and, secondly, the hypothesis that in the distant past of our planet all the current continents could have formed a huge supercontinent Pangea. According to Wegener, it all began as a room during his stay at the University of Marburg in 1910. For Christmas, the comrade received the latest edition of the color Atlas of the Earth. Wegener first came up with the idea of ​​moving the continents when, while studying the world map, he observed the similarity of the coasts on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the fall of 1911, Wegener learned of paleontological data on the ancient land connection between Brazil and Africa, which until then he knew nothing about, which led him to analyze the results. of important geological and paleontological studies on this issue. After studying these data, he became convinced of the fundamental correctness of his idea, inspired by the unusual concept he dared to do it. Wegener, 31, presented it on January 6, 1912, at the congress of the German Geological Society in Frankfurt am Main, Wegener explained that the continents were not always where we see them on the map, but throughout the history of our planet have changed their position.

The drift was not received positively by supporters of fixist ideas about the origin of the terrestrial relief and was harshly criticized. The very idea that parts of the Earth's crust, including the continents, could move on the planet's surface seemed absurd to them. and contradicted everything science believes. At that time, the scientific community received the theory with hostility, considered him inexperienced, even ignored the well-known developments of his predecessors and rejected his hypothesis as an attempt to go against what apparently already worked perfectly. The dominant paradigm of fixism, according to which the theory convincingly explained a series of events in the history of our planet, was actually poorly argued.

Wegener could not explain what forces could move entire continents. Proponents of this theory assumed that the continents were remnants of the oldest Earth's crust due to the melting of the crust early in history. At that time it was assumed that these remains were firmly anchored in certain areas of the planet and that the Earth's crust was only capable of vertical movements downwards where the sea floor was formed. or upward where continents and mountains were formed, but horizontal movements considered very unimportant in this context were allowed, the main cause of the change was seen in the internal heat of the earth, which was cooling, and they believed that the respected The circles geologies on both sides of the Atlantic and especially in North America do not show coherence in any case.

The idea was considered factless and mechanically implausible. For a long time it played only a secondary role in the sphere of interest of most people. Convinced of his idea, which would provide a new insight into the geological history of the planet, Wegener did not abandon the work he had begun to do; He was relieved not only by his perseverance but also by the fact that critics had not yet bothered to seriously analyze the argument for a new view, so the author of the hypothesis began a methodical and exhaustive search for data that would add clarity to this case.

As a result of his research work, the book Origins of the Continents and Oceans was published. was published in 1915, containing not only the new concept itself, but also its solid and versatile justification. After that, it is no longer obvious to ignore the innovative hypothesis and, despite the general unfavorable situations associated with the pressure of the fixation paradigm, serious researchers interested in the continental encounter hypothesis began to make themselves known. The most important contribution to the popularization of his theory was made by British geologists after House suggested that strong convective flows of matter deep within the Earth's interior were the driving force behind the continents. hot masses would slowly rise from the planet's interior while cooler rocks would gradually sink deeper.

The South African Alexander logid du trois became one of the world's leading field geologists at the time by being his most important student in accepting the concept of continental drift and Drawing on his own experiences, Tua began to put forward the idea that in In the distant past there was no contiguous supercontinent, Pangar, but two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana, which were separated by the ancient Tetris ocean. of the Austrian geologist Eduard became sweet as the ancient titis ocean and the ancient continent could be the land of Varna, which included central and southern Africa, Madagascar and the Indian peninsula, useful later;

However, the term Gondwana was used to refer to South America, Australia and Antarctica and, therefore, to this supercontinent, the term Laurasia in turn referred to a hypothetical ancient supercontinent consisting of North America and Eurasia. It was later discovered to have ridges in the middle of the ocean that extended across the globe and in 1953, American physicists Maurice and Bruce discovered that the ridges extend along beneath it. Later, another American scientist, Harry Has Four, suggested that the intermediate ridge system was an area where new oceanic crust was constantly forming. Hot magma flowed across the faults to the surface, pushing up parts of the seafloor on both sides of the trench, making it the main driving force of global plate tectonics.

Discovered since the mid-1960s, the hypothesis was eventually accepted by the scientific community and became the basis of modern geography. The interest of the scientific community of the time in the concept was due to the fact that the author of the hypothesis managed to gather arguments in its favor in a whole series of geological tests of continental drift that drew attention to the astonishing similarity of the Atlantic coasts. of South America and Africa and the compatibility of the reliefs of one continent with those of the other as if they were lines of a torn text; Tests also showed that meanwhile, a look at the world map showed the similarity of geological sections on opposite continents.

This was a possibility not yet discussed but very interesting when it came to rebuilding Pangea. On a world map you can see that the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal now meet, is the same size and shape as the Gulf of Mexico and we can see that the Florida peninsula that covers the bay, judging from the map, It is surprisingly well coordinated with the Bay of Biscay in Europe, and it is also uplifting to see the presence of rare heavy metals such as illminite rouutil zircon and mes move off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico and are mined throughout the Atlantic, but also off the Iberian Peninsula.

Furthermore, paleontological findings have helped explain the phenomenon of the same species of plants and animals being found in the Palazzoic and Mesozoic on opposite continents.which seem to be completely separated by oceans, the The new proposal turned out to be very important in this sense because the old explanation of the fixationist geologists did not fit the biologists on ancient fauna and flora. The historical proximity of these special parts of the planet is confirmed by data from biology and paleontology with, for example, the mystery of eels having been discussed for a long time. European rivers, curiously, went 6,000 km into the Sargasso Sea, directly above the Florida peninsula, to find bodies there; it could be an atavism 130 million years ago they were all able to spawn in the Sargasso Sea when the continents were even closer together and they all settled in Europe even in the region of the British Isles, which means that in ancient times The Bay of Biscay bordered not the northern part but the southern part of the east.

North American continent. This is also demonstrated by the history of the horseshoe crab. Today the horseshoe crab can only be found in the Sargasso Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, but it is interesting that, judging by the exhibition Ranges of the Horseshoe Crab at the Moscow Zoological Museum, it can also be found horseshoe crab fossils in the British Isles, which in turn means that northern Europe is apparently close to the Gulf of The author of the new hypothesis also used paleoclimatic data that were For meteorologist Wegener of only secondary interest. These data also confirmed his position: the position of the continents could be determined based on the paleoclimatic zones and traces of glaciation, but all these arguments and evidence were not considered decisive and sufficient by the After all, the mechanism of formation of such continental collision was not yet clearly understood.

After the death of Alfred Wegener in 1930 during an expedition to the Grünland ice sheet, the drift hypothesis also lost ground. and resorted to criticism that to this day has not received a response, especially for its unsuccessful explanation of the cause of the drift. As a result, the hypothesis was so eclipsed that mobilism fell outside the realm of official science, and therefore outside the realm of official science. eliminated from university curricula but, as is often the case, the rejected idea did not disappear completely; It was revived in the active search for geomagnetism after World War II, as well as in the intensive probing of the seabed using echolocation, all of which.

From this evidence it is demonstrated that the Iberian Peninsula was located in ancient times in the Gulf of Mexico, New arguments were used to test and further develop the hypothesis and theories were developed to support it. It turned out that the entire earth's crust was divided into large individual parts, the so-called plates, it is not the continents that move but the plates with which the continents are firmly attached, the driving force behind this movement is convective heat flows of the material in the Earth's mantle, that is, its gigantic circulations, which have been experienced since the early 1960s, thanks to the hypotheses, enriched with new arguments, a true renaissance is now underway.

The so-called plate tectonics, as we know it today, the Earth's crust is made up of seven large plates. and a series of small lithospheric plates that cover the entire surface of the earth. They move, collide, separate, cling to each other or dive under each other. When two oceanic plates or oceanic and continental plates collide, a subduction zone is created. the edge of one plate sinks to the depth of the other plate and completely melts at a depth of about 100 km and temperatures of 1000 to 1500 ° C. A chain of volcanic mountains forms along the edge of the other plate .

It is often found in subduction zones. An example of this is the Mariana Trench, which was formed by the collision of the Philippine and Pacific plates. When two continental plates collide, high mountain systems such as the Alps or the Himalayas are formed. The Himalayas were formed. when the India-Australia plate joined the Eurasian plate about 40 million years ago Today, India is moving north at a rate of 5 cm per year to keep the Himalayas growing. Often the plates do not collide head-on, but rather slide over each other. The resulting stresses are discharged in the form of seismic tremors that are sometimes very strong in the California region, where for example the North American plate slides along of the Pacific, as a result of such earthquakes the San Andreas Fault was created. activity with the arrival of global plate tectonics, the vision of the development of our planet has radically changed, it is not surprising that this theory is put on a par with Darwin's theory of evolution and Einstein's theory of relativity But is it really so perfect?

In recent years, the now classic division of lithospheric plate movement has gradually developed as more and more are known, so plate tectonics appears to be a kind of self-regulating mechanism. All the systems that make up our planet are involved. For example, mountains have a great influence on the Earth's climate, but it is now clear that climate also influences the tectonic processes that take place deep within them. An example is the Andes Mountains, a mountain system that formed where the Nazca Ocean Plate subducted beneath the South American plate. In the southern part of the Andes there is a humid climate that favors the development of erosion processes, as a result a large amount of sediment deposits enter the Pacific Ocean, which reduces the impact of the plates.

The northern and central Andes have a dry climate. Almost no sediment deposits form here, so the oceanic plate literally moves beyond the edge of the continent. The frictional force of the plates here is so great that the Andes mountain system rises higher and higher along the coast, meaning there are always rain clouds Less chance of breaking through the wall that stood in the way their path Scientists still debate why lithospheric plates move There is a lot of ambiguity about this question and also about the timing Most believe that the main driving force is the slow convection currents that pass through the Earth.

Heat transfer occurs between the Earth's molten core and the mantle, but this explanation does not fit the picture of tectonic movements that we observe. Proponents of an alternative theory are based on the fact that in the depths of the planet there are two convection centers, the main convection center is located under Africa, another center is located on the other side of the globe, specifically under the plate of the Pacific, which is increasingly shrinking. Wegener's idea marked the beginning of a great revolution in our understanding of the nature of the Earth. This revolution is not over yet, it is still moving slowly.

Scientists are still wrestling with two fundamental questions about the supercontinent Pangea: how and why did our supercontinent come about? shape and also why it was divided into several parts? The answers to these questions are not so clear, scientists still cannot decide on a single version of the course of events, since several valid theories compete with each other, modern models of this ancient period in the history of the Earth have shown that the merger of supercontinents similar to Pangea occurred more than once in the distant past, even about 800 million years after the disintegration of the previous supercontinent, a new supercontinent was formed and all the formation events were "repeated.

Pangea is the closest supercontinent to us in time. In less than a century, the model explaining the formation of Pangea was changed several times when Wegener reconstructed the northern part of Pangea or Laurasia, assuming that the northeastern corner of North America or the Labrador Peninsula was included in the Biscayan Depression, the modern reconstruction is different and incomprehensible than the reconstruction of the southern part of Paguera or Grundwarnerland. Most researchers assume that everything in the Earth's mantle probably moved tectonic plates due to Earth's warming. mantle through radioactive decay, which led to the formation of Pangea and its subsequent division into individual continents.

These processes do not occur constantly, which is why it took so long for supercontinents to form and break up. It is not surprising that the power of the Earth's mantle greatly influenced the appearance of our planet as we know it today. About 150 million years ago Pangea completely broke up but what broke up this huge land surface and the continent fell victim to its gigantic size in which it shattered about 120 million years ago the continent also broke up the huge continent Gondwanaland in the southern hemisphere fell apart how did this happen? caused by the convection currents of the planet's deep heat the continents moved towards the surface Pangea broke up and the strong cohesion of the continents stopped imagine a A film on the surface of a hot drink causes the continental plates on the planet to boil in a continuous flow of material as old as the Earth itself.

Many experts believe that the formation of Pangea changed the mass balance on the planet. This imbalance even affected the rotation of the Earth. The lithospheric complex eventually broke into two large pieces, God Warnerland and Laurasia, which in turn also began to disintegrate. This has happened more than once in Earth's history. Other supercontinents that formed long before Pangea suffered a similar fate. This is the case of Rodinia, an ancient supercontinent whose time of formation is still controversial, although scientists believe that it existed about a billion years ago and began to disintegrate 750 million years ago. The faults of Pangea probably run through areas of lithospheric plates that were weakened by collisions with other plates, for example when a large island or another continent was attached to another continent, the division occurred so that Gondwanaland South America India Australia Africa and Antarctica they were banished together Laurasia at that time included the present-day areas of Asia, Europe, Greenland and North America.

At the point where its two edges separated, the Atlantic Ocean began to gradually expand as oceanic areas formed in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge area and Africa moved away from South America. India broke away from Africa, left a piece of Madagascar and headed towards Asia, so Asia shrank into huge folds that we call the Himalayas. In the satellite images it looks like it is the edge of the continental plate crushed, you can even feel the colossal pressure that pushes Everest. From space, the mountains appear light as the folds of a tablecloth; On the other hand, the tectonic convergence between Africa and Europe led to the formation of the Alps;

Scientists do not agree on how this fragmentation occurs. Some are even convinced that the main role in the breakup of the continents was not influenced by the tectonic processes that cause the stretching and disintegration of the Earth's crust. Geologists have long been paying attention to the island ridge in the central Pacific, on which the Hawaiian Islands are located. A chain of volcanoes extends. Over almost 3,500 km, the youngest volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilaua, still spew lava, while the oldest of these volcanoes was active for more than 40 million years. All of these volcanoes were created by a so-called hotspot, which is a flow of magma into a stream.

A large amount of hot material rises from the depths of the Earth's mantle and tears a hole in the lithosphere. This is where the volcano comes into play. The hot spot is generally considered to be stationary in the Earth's mantle while the lithosphere moves slowly above it. As a result, the volcano gradually moves away from the magma chamber and, if it goes out, a new volcano is created, in the same way that a chain of brown spots is created on a sheet of paper that is slowly passed over a burning candle. . Volcanoes of different ages have formed along the underwater ridge of Hawaii, molten lava quietly flows from Hawaiian volcanoes without destructive explosions and without danger, spreads around the crater and calmly solidifies, sometimes crumbling into many blocks angular, sometimes it remains stagnant. with a smooth black rind.

However, these volcanoes were not always so quiet in the history of the earth. There are already warmer periods. Scientists have discovered miles of frozen lava stories. They are larger than the Scandinavian peninsula. It is clear that volcanoes have been here for several million. The reason for these enormous eruptions is believed to be mantle jets of unprecedented strength that slide easily through the lithosphere, but what could produce these enormous jets, obviously linked to areas ofNormal warming at the bottom of the oceans, the Earth's crust is very thin. Just a dozen kilometers away, hot rocks directly below heat this thin layer and push it toward the surface, but beneath the continents the crust is 30 to 80 km thick.

This shield reliably protects against the heat of the Earth's core, but the continent reaches certain levels. up to a critical point an unusual amount of heat accumulates below, as a result a jet of hot material rises from the mantle but cannot descend again the lithosphere does not conduct heat well, therefore it is a thermal insulator the melt is extends to the sides A horizontal convective current forms at the same time, incandescent rocks emerge from the Earth's interior. This strong current flows through the upper layer of the lithosphere and, after eroding the thickness of the continent, separates it and pours onto the surface.

If this hypothesis is correct, long-lasting volcanic eruptions begin to occur. There are many volcanoes along the line where the continent breaks. There is no doubt that part of the Atlantic coast of Africa, South America and Europe, where the crack was located, At the point where it divided, vestiges of ancient eruptions are preserved. Along these Atlantic coasts there are huge layers of basalt that are exactly the same as the time when Pangea gradually split into two parts, however, so far there is not enough evidence for either hypothesis. The same hypotheses can also explain the collapse of Gondwana Land, which is the largest continent in the southern hemisphere of the Earth, to which Africa, Australia, South America, Antarctica, India and Madagascar belong.

About 160 million years ago, Gondwanaland and Laurasia began to split apart. On the continents we know, leaving gaps that became new oceans, the Indian Atlantic and the Arctic, the map of the Earth acquired its familiar appearance during the Paleozoic era, Pangea became a single supercontinent. This supercontinent lasted about 290 million years. This period was characterized by the appearance of various living beings and ended with their mass extinction. All rocks that formed during this period were assigned to the Paleo Zoica group as this super continent slowly separated along the rift edge. At the end of this process, the physical world was reshaped and the new geographical distribution of the continents had important consequences for the climate and the course of biological evolution, with the circulation of water in the oceans being the main heat transfer mechanism of one region of the Earth's surface to another.

The redistribution of the continents radically changed life on our planet. The newly formed ocean basins became barriers to the spread of plants and animals, especially for land dwellers, but this change also affected marine organisms. Pangea was so crucial in shaping our modern world, affecting everything from wildlife distribution to our current climate, that it deserves further study. At the end of the Paleozoic, part of the ocean that surrounded the Earth to the west in Pangea shifted toward the region we now call the Mediterranean. Eventually, this water intrusion spread westward, splitting Pangea and separating Europe and Africa. The resulting vast basin became an independent sea known to geologists as the Astheti Ocean.

Its formation had a considerable influence on the global climate. As oceans were allowed to flow across latitude, the process of continental crust change moved further west and separated South America from North and Central America. At the beginning of their development, they were regularly flooded by me, then they evaporated and salt deposits formed. These triatic evaporites are currently found in the lands of northwestern Africa and in many parts of Europe. There is evidence of an extremely dry climate in the late Palezoic, particularly in the interior of the continent. Some of this evidence comes from fauna and flora preserved in fossils.

Remains and sedimentary rock. Researchers assume that the central parts of the supercontinent were very dry because there was very little rain. This desert climate was due to the fact that these areas were surrounded by high mountains that prevented rain clouds from reaching certain areas. In addition, there are many sandstones and petrified dunes. A striking feature in today's world, sand dunes are characteristic of hot, dry desert conditions and there is no reason to believe this was not the case in the past. Sandstones can form in different natural environments but it is generally easy to switch between them.

To distinguish between dunes and those that were deposited on sandy beaches or in rivers, for example, secondary grains and pebbles are not as easily transported by the wind, so the stages are characterized by small bodies that are deposited so much more uniform than coastal or river sands, reflecting the actual sequence of sedimentation, is very different in these two cases, but even if dune deposits were quite common in the Permian, they are not the only evidence of an arid climate in this period. characterized by layers of evaporite or salt deposits that form in conditions where there are more pools of water that are isolated from the open ocean and simply dry out, leaving dissolved salt deposits like sand dunes, evaporite deposits indicate a climate warm and dry. among geologists about the importance of the facts we have just considered for understanding the global climate in the Paleozoic Pangea was crossed by the equator and many of the evaporites and thin deposits come from low latitudes, perhaps the climate at that time was not so It is not only a result of geographical location, but the vast land mass of Pangea had a dry climate in the interior with extreme temperature fluctuations of hot summers and yet, thanks to the discovery of coal deposits in In some places, scientists have concluded that the part of Pangea closest to the equator was covered in rainforests.

It is difficult to imagine how different the climate was on this prehistoric supercontinent, so the available data must be interpreted with caution: it is not easy to accurately reconstruct the details of the Earth's climate a quarter of a century later. billion years ago, but regardless of the details, we know that the continents moved slowly and that the collapse of Pangea took a long time to affect the climate. The impact of this large land mass persisted throughout much of the Mesozoic. Prehistoric fossils help scientists understand what life was like. It was like the time of Pangea, about 300 million years ago.

At the beginning of the Permian of the last Paleozoic period, the first mammals already lived in large numbers. Reptiles began to appear in forested areas at this time, and they multiplied rapidly. It turns out that it is possible to find these fossil remains only for one simple reason: all continents once formed a single country and were not separated by the waters of the oceans. Zynognatus was a reptile that existed on our planet during the Triassic period as Pangea scientists have done. Remains of this animal were discovered in South America and Africa, the remains of Listrosaurus, another reptile from one country, were found in India, Antarctica and Africa, while these countries were not part of a single Pangea during The discoveries of Prehistoric Lustrosaurus remains in such distant places are simply impossible.

The pale andological evidence speaks clearly in favor of the validity of the theory of the existence and division of Pangea. Many species of animals lived in Pangea and most of them were very different from today's fauna. The dontidos, for example, were a family of herbivores that are considered the ancestors of today's mammals and were particularly numerous in the Pangean period. During the Triassic period, the first arosaurs appeared on Earth, including the famous fossil Archeopteryx, which eventually became the ancestor of modern crocodiles and birds. During the Triassic, as already mentioned, dinosaurs also populated our planet, however, these new dinosaurs did not look like the Jurassic Park dinosaurs, researchers believe that these dinosaurs had very porous bones and were covered in feathers, not scales like reptiles.

We know that most of the organisms that lived at that time lived in the seas, the organisms flooded all types of habitats and were found in freshwater herbivorous organisms such as tabbouleh or corals, that is, animals with a calcareous skeleton, as well as Arche ozetis. which are known as sea sponges and microscopically small living animal colonies with a great variety of shapes. In this period, many species and types of living beings emerged. In the beginning, all living beings lived in the seas and the most developed were the fish many types of corals and trilobites, marine arthropods that lived exclusively in the Paleozoic amphibians, were less numerous and most of the species that lived on Earth during supercontinence remained mainly in water.

They belonged to the ancestors of modern fauna. More developed plants appeared in the time of Pangea. The diversity of plants of different colors literally exploded. Fertilization no longer depends on the presence of liquid water, pollen can travel thousands of kilometers to fertilize a female gamete. The seeds are transported by the wind, animals and even water allow species to conquer new areas. The palynological data of spores and pollen indicate an annihilation of gymnosperms, that is, seedless plants, today represented by conifers, and its replacement, especially in the northern hemisphere, by small fusiform lützowerid plants reminiscent of today's Moses.

During the Paleuzoic, plants could be much larger: the extinct plant genus pleuromeea was found in Russia, Europe, China and, with numerous fossil specimens, were found in Australia, strongly represented, their leafless trunks reaching two to three meters, predominance of lysopos and driving tracks. indicates a survival strategy in the southern hemisphere since Pangea the Permian flora consisted mainly of extinct ferns kosoteris which could be tree-like fossil specimens with leaves two to 30 cm long after the mass extinction during the Permian Triassic crisis was replaced by the dicroidium flora which was of the same type however fossilized plants are rare and there is no charcoal there is a strong growth of microfossils with organic walls these have been interpreted as fossils of fungi that intervene in the decomposition of plants that is to say the continents They would have transported a large amount of decaying plants.

Ginkgo biloba is today the only remaining species of the order of ginkoase whose beginnings date back to the Permian period about 280 million years ago. The Ginkgo biloba tree can grow up to 40 m tall and live more than 1000 years years. The leaves of this living fossil are often used in herbal medicine. The end of the Permian period, which was already inhabited by strange life forms such as prototypes of dinosaurs, sharks and giant reptiles, witnessed the largest extinction in the history of the earth. About 252 million years ago a mass extinction occurred, this period is known as the thermal mass extinction.

As a result of this mass extinction, living beings survived, among other things, that became relatives of modern birds. At the same time, the first species of dinosaurs also appeared, which, according to the latest scientific estimates, represented between 93 and 97% of all marine animals and almost two-thirds of land animals and plants disappeared. A terrible catastrophe 252 million years ago, which practically destroyed the ancient great forests and subsequently caused the largest mass extinction of all time, but remains one of the greatest mysteries for paleontologists. According to many scientists, the extinction of most of the planet's biomass was the result of the formation of the supercontinent Pangea.

In a study by Chinese scientists, the authors report that researchers around the world have gathered enough evidence to explain the severe climate changes that occurred 252 million years ago on Earth, the most important indicators. They include a sharp decrease in oxygen saturation in the world's oceans and an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane. As a result of intense acid rain, the chemical composition of seawater has changed, resulting in the understanding Corals have caused simultaneous chemical changes as a result of global warming. The composition of the earth and gradually became a desert without life the cataclysm lasted millennia and the oscillations of the climatic pendulum back and forth the periods of warming are replaced by cold waves according toThis hypothesis the origin of all problems is in the large-scale movement of plate tectonics more than 50 million years ago.

The beginning of the recorded catastrophes occurred as a result of collisions, some of the plates sank into the Earth's mantle , which was accompanied by a thickening of the Earth's crust and an increase in the depth of the At the beginning of the Permian, about 300 million years ago, these geological processes led to a reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. As the planet's magnetic carbon reversed, a large amount of cold material reached the Earth's mantle, where a sort of plume formed. Over millions of years, some of the material from this cloud reached the surface through thermal convection, which first occurred 251 million years ago in the area of ​​present-day Siberia, when lava covered more than 4 million square kilometers. of the Earth, an enormous area seven times the size of Spain.

Furthermore, a similar hole formed in the Earth's crust in modern-day southern China 260 million years ago after these two eruptions were the result of massive convergence of tectonic forces. plates that Chinese scientists point to as the source of all evils in the form of greenhouse gases and acid rain that have plagued the planet since before the appearance of the dinosaurs, it should be noted that not all scientists agree with their Chinese colleagues in the most criticized. Between the formation of Pangea and the volcanic eruptions there is a gap of 50 million years. Some scientists believe that the reasons for this should be sought closer to the extinction itself.

The most important consequence of the formation and disintegration of Pake was the mass extinction that caused changes in the Earth's population and subsequently led to the emergence of several new species of plants and animals. What if Pangea had not divided? If we compare the appearance of the Earth today with that of the Earth at the time of the dinosaurs, we will hardly find similarities between completely different countries, many of them would have a different geographical location and therefore a different climate: Siberia, for example, could be in the subtropics and in present-day California, not only the location of the countries and their climate change, but also the animal world if Pangea had not disintegrated.

The Earth is now inhabited by other animal species that we do not know and whose diversity we can only imagine. A single continent also means you can move around. easily. Land transportation would become even more popular as all areas of Pangea could be reached by land. Air transport would undoubtedly be faster and more convenient the lack of maritime borders would make any political conflict even more dangerous the conditions for starting a war It would be simplified as troop movements would be faster but who says I can develop the race human race so quickly would have put it more simply: the human species could develop if the supercontinent had not broken up.

The melting of continents is a cyclical process. According to the Wilson cycle, supercontinents form in cycles that join and separate again every 400 to 500 million years through plate tectonics, which means Pangea will one day be a reality. But the continents are uniting so slowly that unfortunately we cannot see exactly what consequences unification into a single supercontinent will have. We can only make assumptions and propose various theories. As science advances, the conviction grows that it is very important to continue paleogeography to explore and reconstruct as accurately as possible what the Earth was like in the past. This research is advancing because the more detailed the reconstructions of our planet's past, the more accurate the predictions about the Earth's future development will be.

Before Pangea there were other super continents of which Pangea itself was composed older continents, but this was only a brief episode of unification and before and after the fragmented pieces of land were long separated by several oceans and the old masses of land were sewn together like a crazy carpet of flies by tectonic development, the material from the old continents began to be used in the same way to form supercontinents, only they were cut differently than in today's atlases. In the past, the first continents were separated by oceans, but as the continents gradually joined together to form a single country, the oceans closed. and a supercontinent was created.

Remember that according to the current theory of continental encounters, the formation of a supercontinent from the fusion of existing continents is a cyclic process that repeats itself every 500 million years, it is estimated that half of the year has already passed. time. Since the continents changed location, which means that the Earth will change again in about 250 million years there will be a hypothetical next Pangea called Ultima and which will include the following land masses Africa Australia Eurasia America and Antarctica perhaps one day all the continents currents join together in the Pacific Ocean area and form a supercontinent, as has already happened in the history of the Earth, but over time they move in the opposite direction and, as they divide into individual parts, the next cycle begins. of continental movement. you can see that the Red Sea Trench is opening Africa is approaching Eurasia at a rate of 3 to 4 cm per year so the Mediterranean is gradually closing the Atlantic Ocean is expanding the Pacific Ocean is shrinking the Indian plate is It moves north and crosses the Eurasian plate as a plate, which also means that the Tibetan plateau is growing.

All modern observations are based on pallium magnetic data on the speed and direction of motion. Satellite geodesy or gpsi made it possible to reliably determine which plate is moving, in what direction and at what speed. Existing models and assumptions have a physical basis. This is not fiction, but long-term observations of plate movements. According to these models, the Japanese island arc will reach the coast of the Russian Far East in about 30 million years. On the geological time scale, an inland ocean basin may initially form within the Eurasian continent and then the Siberian and Armor plates may separate again and a maritime region may open between them.

In 250 million years, the North American continent will rotate counterclockwise and Alaska will be in the subtropical belt. Your Asia will continue to rotate clockwise and the British Isles will be at the North Pole, while Siberia will be in the subtropics, the Mediterranean Sea will close and mountains comparable in height will form in its place. to the Himalayas to the next definitive Pangea that will be 90% desert. To the northwest and southeast of the continent you will see gigantic mountain ranges - in other words our planet will be as it was 335 million years ago - these processes do not stop and we This can be observed through earthquakes (seismic events reflect the movement of plates together), it has probably already been proven that our planet today looks very different from Pangea, but researchers are convinced that the Earth in its current form will not last forever and that a huge supercontinent like Pangea will appear again in the future.

Throughout Earth's history, continents have grown together again and again and separated, sometimes joining together to form supercontinents and then separating again today. It is slowly moving towards Asia, suggesting the possibility of a future super continent in this part of the planet. How long will it take me to form such a large land mass? A similar process can take 300 to 400 million years and takes the same time for a supercontinent to break up into several small landmasses. The earth changes shape. It is not static and when the outlines of the continents and oceans we know are shown on a globe, that does not mean they have always been there and always will be. be there and that the current appearance of the planet is only a temporary phenomenon.

To date, scientists have developed a scale to measure the habitability of the climate on the planet. According to this scale, the Earth is currently 85% habitable. The indicator does not include the areas of the Arctic and Antarctica where the average temperature is below 0° C. Scientists have not stopped investigating and have decided to determine the climatic conditions and population of the planet in the new supercontinent that will form in the future when Pangea Ultima forms, the Earth's climate will be completely different because all the continents in the equatorial zone will be united. The polar caps will only remain on the highest mountain peaks, so the sun will barely reflect in space.

As a result, the average temperature on Earth will be similar to the height at which mesuticum last existed as Pangea and will be 20.7 degrees Celsius. In this sense, the degree of habitability of the next supercontinence will be 99.8% since the Most areas will be in the equatorial and tropical climatic zones, the biological diversity on the planet will also be exceptional and high. Given the current level of knowledge about plate tectonics, it is not yet possible to predict exactly what the new unified continent will look like, but scientists are confident that it will take millions of years to form.