Pangaea was the supercontinent that brought most of Earth’s continental landmasses together before they separated into the continents familiar today.
It assembled during the late Paleozoic Era and began breaking apart during the early Mesozoic Era. At its greatest extent, Pangaea was surrounded by a vast global ocean called Panthalassa, while the eastern side contained a large embayment known as the Tethys Sea. The supercontinent’s name comes from Greek roots meaning “all Earth.”
Pangaea was not the first supercontinent in Earth’s history. Older proposed supercontinents include Rodinia, while Gondwana was a major southern landmass that existed before and during the assembly of Pangaea. Pangaea itself formed when earlier continental blocks collided through plate tectonic activity.
Its breakup helped produce the modern Atlantic Ocean and separated Laurasia in the north from Gondwana in the south before those regions fragmented further. Fossils, matching rock formations, ancient climate evidence, and the outlines of continental shelves all support the reconstruction. The continents continue moving today, so another supercontinent may form hundreds of millions of years in the future.