For millions of years the African plate, which contains part of the Mediterranean seabed, has been moving northward toward the Eurasian Plate at a rate of about an inch every 2.5 years (a centimeter a year).

Strait of Gibraltar

This perspective view shows the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Europe (Spain) is on the left. Africa (Morocco) is on the right.

One of the planet’s major hotspots, the Strait of Gibraltar is among Spain’s biggest security headaches. As you approach the Atlantic, the Strait gradually narrows to just eight miles across, a swirling torrent that separates Africa from Europe, and notorious for its treacherous currents and sudden storms.

There are white sharks or tiger sharks in the Strait of Gibraltar. These were thought not to exist in the Alboran Sea until one was fished off Manilva in 1991.

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Africa has been slowly colliding with Europe for millions of years, Scotese said. “Italy, Greece and almost everything in the Mediterranean is part of (the African plate), and it has been colliding with Europe for the last 40 million years.” Africa has collided with Europe, closing off the Mediterranean Sea.

The answer is yes. Pangea wasn’t the first supercontinent to form during Earth’s 4.5-billion-year geologic history, and it won’t be the last. Next came Rodinia, which dominated the planet between 1.2 billion and 750 million years ago.

Dinosaurs lived on all of the continents. At the beginning of the age of dinosaurs (during the Triassic Period, about 230 million years ago), the continents were arranged together as a single supercontinent called Pangea. During the 165 million years of dinosaur existence this supercontinent slowly broke apart.

During the existence of the Earth seven different supercontinents had been on the surface of the planet which will be presented now.

• Vaalbara.
• Kenorland.
• Columbia (Nuna)
• Rodinia.
• Pannotia.
• Pangaea.

But before Pangaea, Earth’s landmasses ripped apart and smashed back together to form supercontinents repeatedly. Just like other supercontinents, the number of detrital zircon grains increased during formation and dropped off during breakup of Rodinia.

But how do we know that Pangea actually existed? After all, human beings evolved only a few hundred thousand years ago, so no one was around to witness this geomorphological monstrosity.

They all existed as a single continent called Pangea. Pangea first began to be torn apart when a three-pronged fissure grew between Africa, South America, and North America.

Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago. Gondwana was half of the Pangaea supercontinent, along with a northern supercontinent known as Laurasia.

Eurasian (mixed ancestry) A Eurasian is a person of mixed Asian and European ancestry.

Although Afro-Eurasia is typically considered to comprise two or three separate continents, it is not a proper supercontinent. Instead, it is the largest present part of the supercontinent cycle. It has made up parts of every supercontinent since.

In order of age (oldest to newest), the ancient supercontinents were:

• Vaalbara (~3.6 billion years ago)
• Ur (~3.1 billion years ago)
• Kenorland (~2.6 billion years ago)
• Columbia, also called Nuna (~1.8 to 1.5 billion years ago)
• Rodinia (~1.1 billion years to ~750 million years ago)

Pangaea