Breakup and Assembly of
Pangaea
Locating the Continents
• Since 200 m.y. ago: Magnetic Stripes
• In Pangaea: Fit of Edges
• Before Pangaea
– Fossil Assemblages
– Collision History
– Climate Indicators
– Paleomagnetism
Magnetic Dip
• The earth’s magnetic field has both a
horizontal and a vertical direction
Locating the Ancient Continents
• Paleomagnetism gives paleolatitudes
accurate to about 10 degrees
• There is no way of determining
paleolongitude
• The further back we go, the more pieces are
unaccounted for
1979
and
1994
data
Assembly of Pangaea
Rodinia