Posted on 07/09/2013 2:11:45 PM PDT by null and void
Colored polygons represent different geological units that have been mapped (and inferred) by geologists over many years. These geological units formed before the continents broke apart, so we can use their position to put the "jigsaw pieces" back together again. Many other reconstructions do not use the geological boundaries to match the continental "jigsaw pieces" back together - so they don't align properly. Courtesy of University of Royal Holloway London
A new study published in the journal Gondwana Research, has revealed the past position of the Australian, Antarctic and Indian tectonic plates, demonstrating how they formed the supercontinent Gondwana 165 million years ago.
Researchers from Royal Holloway University, The Australian National University and Geoscience Australia, have helped clear up previous uncertainties on how the plates evolved and where they should be positioned when drawing up a picture of the past.
Dr Lloyd White from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway University said: "The Earth's tectonic plates move around through time. As these movements occur over many millions of years, it has previously been difficult to produce accurate maps of where the continents were in the past.
"We used a computer program to move geological maps of Australia, India and Antarctica back through time and built a 'jigsaw puzzle' of the supercontinent Gondwana. During the process, we found that many existing studies had positioned the plates in the wrong place because the geological units did not align on each plate."
The researchers adopted an old technique used by people who discovered the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics, but which had largely been ignored by many modern scientists.
"It was a simple technique, matching the geological boundaries on each plate. The geological units formed before the continents broke apart, so we used their position to put this ancient jigsaw puzzle back together again," Dr White added.
"It is important that we know where the plates existed many millions of years ago, and how they broke apart, as the regions where plates break are often where we find major oil and gas deposits, such as those that are found along Australia's southern margin."
ping
Gondwana? Who came up with that name? Find them and slap them up side the head.
6016 seems a bit arbitrary.
From Wikipedia: "The continent of Gondwana was named by Austrian scientist Eduard Suess, after the Gondwana region of central northern India (from Sanskrit gondavana "forest of the Gonds"), from which the Gondwana sedimentary sequences (Permian-Triassic) are also described."
The animation kind of makes it appear as if the supercontinent is a remnant of the impact which created the Moon. I wonder what the timeframes involved were... the Moon is close to 4.5 or so billion years old, right (close to the age of planet Earth).
Would you like Gondwana in box, with fox?............
What happened to Pangea?
6016 years, 6 months, 27 days 1 hour and 16 minutes old...
>>Gondwana? Who came up with that name? Find them and slap them up side the head.<<
They should have gone with “Anawdnog.”
Or “Steve.”
and 32 seconds ... 33 ... 34 ... 35 ...
Democrats got control.
I like Steve. One syllable and easy to remember.
Doesn't that argue against oil and gas being "fossil" fuels and more for substances naturally produced by a break. I can think of no reason why fossil fuels should occur near a break.
“What happened to Pangea?”
There’s a treatment for it now. Apparently, it went away.
You say Gonwanda and I say Pangea. Let’s call the whole thing off.
Steve!!??...what a stupit name for a super continent
Now Bob..there’s a proper name
“Gondwana?”
I knew her sister, “Gondeisha.”
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