Pennsylvanian

During the middle and late Paleozoic, about a third of the Rodinian mass was torn apart and moved to equatorial regions. Most of these blocks were assembled by a series of plate collisions into the super continents of Laurussia [the Old Red continent] by the Devonian and Laurasia by the Pennsylvanian. Meanwhile the remains of Rodinia, Gondwana, rotated clockwise and moved northward to collide with Laurasia -- the result was the super continent Pangaea [all land]. Pangaea was shaped like a huge "pack man", mouth agape and facing eastward across the equator. The large,open mouth was the Tethys Ocean.

Laurussia and Siberia collide to form Laurasia; meanwhile Gondwana collides from the south. The resulting Appalachian, Ouachita, Marathon, Ural, Variscan, and Hercynian orogenies formed some of the largest mountains of all time. The Ancestral Rockies formed in west-central N. A.

Paleogeographic globes

300 Ma

Tectonics, Sedimentation, Paleogeography of North Atlantic Region

300 Ma

1st Order Global Tectonic Features

300 Ma

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