Pangaea

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Pangaea
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A puzzle of epic proportions

• The super continent of Pangaea was once made up
  of all the land masses we recognize on our earth
  today.

• Take a look at our mapscan you see how the
  continents fit together?

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Pangaea
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Pangaea
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Pangaea Questions

• What does Pangaea mean anyways?
• What exactly is Pangaea ?
• How do we know what it was like 200 million years
  ago if no one is alive to tell us about it?
• What happened to Pangaea, how did it separate?
• If the continents moved around millions of years
  ago how do we know they wont do it again?

These are ALL good questions Lets see if we can
find out for ourselves!
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Define Pangaea

• The word Pangaea comes from Greek words pan and
  gaia
• pan meaning entire
• gaia meaning earth
• Therefore Pangaea literally means Entire Earth.
  Which seems fitting because it was composed of
  every land mass on the entire Earth!
• LINK

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What is Pangaea?

• Pangaea is a super continent that is said to have
  existed from the Permian through the Jurassic
  period in our earths history.

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What is Pangaea?

• Alfred Wegner first suggested the existence of
  Pangaea while exploring his theory of continental
  drift.
• He theorized that millions of years ago the
  continents were all formed together in one land
  mass that he called Pangaea.
• Alfred couldnt explain what force had the power
  to move the continents, but his evidence had him
  convinced of his theory.

Alfred Wegner
(http//www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosau
rs/glossary/Contdrift.shtml)
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What evidence?

• There are a few sources of evidence supporting
  the existence of Pangaea
• Fossils
• Rocks and minerals
• Matching coastlines (like puzzle pieces!)
• Plate tectonics

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ROCKS

• The same rock patterns were found in South
  America, India, Africa, Antarctica and Australia.
• How could this be true?

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READ THE ARTICLE ON ROCKS!
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FOSSILS
Plant and animal fossils found on the coastlines
of different continents
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READ THE ARTICLE ON FOSSILS!
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Look again at the puzzle like coastlines on the
map of Pangaea?
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Plate Tectonics

• Tectonic plates have been moving for millions of
  years.
• If they use computers to back track the movement
  of the plates over time, scientists can tell that
  all of the continents were once together around
  225 million years ago and that the continents
  have slowly separated over time into the places
  they are now.

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Read The Article on Tectonic Plates
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ANCIENT CLIMATES

• Tropical plant remains (coal deposits) found in
  Antarctica also were the same
• Glaciation in Africa, South America, India, and
  Australia happened during the same time

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Continental Drift Theory

• Proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912
• 250 million years ago, all of the continents were
  combined into one super-continent called
  Pangaea
• The continents gradually drifted apart to where
  they are today

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Continental Drift Theory
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Theory of Continental Drift
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Do you guys remember learning about plate
tectonics?

• Alfreds theory of continental drift inspired
  other scientists to develop the theory we know
  today as plate tectonics.
• This answered his troublesome question regarding
  what force was strong enough to move continents.
• Now that we know about continental and oceanic
  plates, Alfreds theory on the existence of
  Pangaea has been confirmed by Scientists.

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Since all the continents were joined in one land
mass (Pangaea), the remaining area of our earth
was covered in ocean! This ocean is referred to
as, Panthalassa.