Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Pan and Gaia: the supercontinent called Pangaea


Green Map of the World
Originally uploaded by iQoncept
Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea (pronounced /pænˈdʒiːə/[1], from Ancient Greek παν pan "entire", and Γαῖα Gaia "Earth", Latinized as Gæa) was the supercontinent that existed, says Wikipedia.org, during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration.[2]

The name was first used by the German originator of the continental drift theory, Alfred Wegener, in the 1920 edition of his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), in which a postulated supercontinent Pangaea played a key role.

The single enormous ocean which surrounded Pangaea is known as Panthalassa.