As the lava cools, the rocks magnetize and line up according to the Earth’s magnetic field. One finding shows that the iron-rich rocks formed from lava vary in their orientation around the world. According to Scientific American, there are a number of clues that led researchers to consider that our continents and land masses are not fixed in location and have indeed been on the move since formation. Anyone who has looked at a world map can’t help but notice how neatly South America fits into the west coast of Africa. The discovery of Pangaea hinges on a series of coincidences that pushed earth scientists to dig deep into our planet’s history. The Geological Society noted that this formed the current arrangement of continents and oceans around 50 million years ago, when India collided with Eurasia to form the Himalayas. Pangaea theory, according to National Geographic, suggested that the tectonic plates forming the planet’s outer crust slid over the inner layers until they merged as a landmass surrounded by a massive ocean called Panthalassa.ĭriven by rift formation and subduction, the plates and their landmasses continued drifting, eventually breaking up Pangaea. Pangaea, from the Greek pangaia, which means “all the Earth,” once contained almost the whole landmass on the planet.

Even though today’s continents formed by breaking apart from a massive supercontinent millions of years ago, according to The Conversation, plate tectonics predict that we could all be very close neighbors once again.īut don’t book time off quite yet: Novopangea, as the potential supercontinent is called, is around 200 to 250 million years away. The ultimate road trip is coming up thanks to the next stage in Pangaea theory.

Pangaea and flat earth theory