MadSci Network: Earth Sciences
Query:

Re: why did Gondwana land break up and seperate?

Date: Mon Jun 28 23:44:01 1999
Posted By: Diane Hanley, Staff, geologist , Science Center of NH
Area of science: Earth Sciences
ID: 927691606.Es
Message:

From the inside out, the earth is made up of a solid core, a layer of melted rock called the mantle and a thin, solid crust. The earth’s crust floats or rides on top of the hot mantle. The crust of the earth includes ocean floors and all of the continents. It is not a solid, one-piece shell. Instead, the crust is made of several large plates. For example, the North American plate carries the continent of North America (Canada, Alaska, the continental United States and Mexico.) The melted rock of the mantle moves and circulates like boiling water does, only much more slowly because it is thicker, sort of like taffy. When the mantle moves in a particular direction near the surface of the earth, it drags the crust with it. The crust of Gondwanaland was slowly pulled apart because the mantle circulated in opposite directions directly below the crust. Not many people realize that Gondwanaland existed before the supercontinent Pangaea formed and it stayed together after Pangaea broke up! Pangaea formed 240 million years ago and broke up into Laurasia and Gondwanaland 208 million years ago. (These ages are approximate).


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