PANGAEA

Genesis 10:25

Viewing the 1769 King James Version. Click to switch to 1611 King James Version of Genesis 10:25.

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

Plate Tectonics - Pangaea Continent Maps

Plate tectonics is the study of the lithosphere, the outer portion of the earth consisting of the crust and part of the upper mantle. The lithosphere is divided into about a dozen large plates which move and interact with one another to create earthquakes, mountain ranges, volcanic activity, ocean trenches and many other features. Continents and ocean basis are moved and changed in shape as a result of these plate movements.

Illustration from USGS

Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea ( /pænˈdʒiːə/ pan-JEE-ə;) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming about 300 million years ago and beginning to rift around 200 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configurations. The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa. The name Pangaea is derived from Ancient Greek, pan (πᾶν) meaning "entire," and Gaia (Γαῖα) meaning "Earth." The name was coined during a 1927 symposium discussing Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift. In his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), first published in 1915, he postulated that all the continents had at one time formed a single supercontinent which he called the "Urkontinent", before later breaking up and drifting to their present locations.

The sequence of maps below show how a large supercontinent, known as Pangaea was fragmented into several pieces, each being part of a mobile plate of the lithosphere. These pieces were to become Earth's current continents. The time sequence show through the maps traces the paths of the continents to their current positions.. In the early 1900's Alfred Wegener proposed the idea of Continental Drift. His ideas centered around continents moving across the face of the earth. The idea was not quite correct - compared to the plate tectonics theory of today - but his thinking was on the proper track. In addition, a variant spelling of Pangaea is "Pangea". It appears in some textbooks and glossaries, however, Pangaea is the current preferred spelling.