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Introduction History of the Atlas

This Paleogeographic Atlas, is just one of a

This Paleogeographic Atlas illustrates the plate series of atlases, that I have produced since my
tectonic development of the ocean basins and days as an undergraduate at the University of
continents as well as the changing distribution Illinois (Chicago). The first atlases were
of land and sea during the past 650 million published as miniature "flip books" (Scotese,
years. The maps in this atlas are based on the 1975; 1976; and most recently, Scotese, 1997)
paleogeographic maps of Scotese and Golonka and computer animations (Scotese and Baker,
(1992), but have been rendered in an artistic 1975; Scotese et al., 1981). While a graduate
fashion to show the relief of mountain ranges student in Fred Ziegler's lab at the University
and continental margins, active plate boundaries of Chicago and Rob Van der Voo's paleomagnetic
(blue = sea floor spreading, red=subduction laboratory at the University of Michigan, we
zones), and the extent of climatic belts (green published a series of maps, which were a unique
= wet, yellow =dry). The names of the ancient combination of plate tectonics, paleomagnetism,
oceans and continents are shown (e.g. and paleogeography (Paleozoic maps, Scotese et
Panthalassic Ocean, Laurentia, Cimmeria) along al., 1979; Mesozoic and Cenozoic maps, Ziegler
with modern place names (in italic). The et al., 1983). Though other paleogeographic
present-day coastlines, for reference, are atlases have been published (Smith et al., 1994;
overlain in light gray. Accompanying each full- Ziegler, 1989), as far as I am aware, these
color paleogeographic map is a simplified black early publications of the Paleogeographic Atlas
& white map showing only the ancient land areas Project were the first maps to illustrate the
and the present-day coastlines. plate tectonic and paleogeographic evolution of
the ocean basins and continents during the
The 20 time periods covered in this atlas are: Phanerozoic.
650 Ma (Late Proterozoic), 514 Ma (Late
Cambrian), 458 Ma (Middle Ordovician), 425 Ma Though based on this early work, the
(Middle Silurian), 390 Ma (Early Devonian), 356 paleogeography has been updated as more recent
Ma (Early Carboniferous), 306 Ma (Late syntheses have become available for the Jurassic
Carboniferous), 255 Ma (Late Permian), 237 Ma & Cretaceous (Scotese, 1995), Africa (Hulver,
(Early Triassic), 195 Ma (Early Jurassic), 152 1985), Europe (Ziegler, 1989, 1990), China
Ma (Late Jurassic), 94 Ma (Late Cretaceous), (Wang, 1985; Nie et al, 1990), Australia (Cook,
69.5 Ma (latest Cretaceous), 50.2 Ma (Middle 1990), SE Asia (Hutchison, 1989), Former Soviet
Eocene), 14.0 (Middle Miocene), 18,000 years ago Union (Zonenshain et al., 1990), and globally
(Pleistocene), Present-day, and three fanciful (Ronov et al., 1984, 1989).
maps for 50, 150 and 250 million years in the
future. A detailed description of the It is important to note that in 1982, Judy
information used to make each map, the key Parrish, who was a post-doc at Chicago at the
features of each map, as well as some of the time, added her paleoclimatic interpretations to
uncertainties associated with each map are these early reconstructions (Parrish, 1982;
described in the section that follows this Parrish et al., 1982). Judy's paleoclimatic
introduction. reconstructions are the basis of the climatic
zones shown in this atlas and were the
inspiration for the parametric climate model Union, and the North American Cordillera. The
(PCM) developed by Malcolm Ross and myself model presented here for China grew largely from
(Scotese and Summerhayes, 1986; Scotese and Ross informal discussions with David Rowley, Fred
(1996). Ziegler, Nie Shangyou (Nie et al., 1990; Yin and
Nie, 1996) and Celal Sengor (Sengor and Natalin,
In 1984, at the invitation of John Sclater, I 1996). The early paleomagnetic syntheses of Lin
joined the research staff at the Institute for Jin Lu, were also very useful and thought
Geophysics and started the Paleoceanographic provoking. The treatment of the terranes of the
Mapping Project (POMP) - now the PLATES Project. former Soviet Union is based on the magnificent
The goal of POMP was to assemble a global, synthesis of Lev Zonenshain and his colleagues
digital compilation of linear magnetic anomaly (Zonenshain et al., 1990). The treatment of
data and to map the tectonic features of the the exotic terranes of the North American
ocean floor using data from satellite altimetry Cordillera is derived largely from the work of
(Gahagan et al., 1988) in order to construct a Friedman (1983) and Rowley (1992).
comprehensive plate tectonic model describing
the development of the ocean basins during the The Mesozoic and Cenozoic history of the ocean
Mesozoic and Cenozoic. This work was carried on basins and continents is relatively well
in collaboration with Larry Lawver, John understood when compared with our knowledge of
Sclater, Dietmar Mueller, Christophe Heubeck, the Paleozoic. In the summer of 1988, a
Jean-Yves Royer, David Sandwell, Lisa Gahagan, symposium on Paleozoic Palaeogeography and
and Malcolm Ross. Palaeo- biogeography was co-convened with Stuart
McKerrow at Oxford. The goal of that symposium
In 1987, Will Sager and I convened a symposium was to produce a new set of Paleozoic
on Mesozoic and Cenozoic plate tectonic reconstructions (Scotese and McKerrow, 1990) and
reconstructions at Texas A&M University. A test them with available biogeographic,
symposium volume (Scotese and Sager, 1988) paleomagnetic and paleoclimatic data. The
documented, on an ocean-by-ocean basis, the Paleozoic maps shown in this atlas are based on
plate tectonic constraints used to reassemble the results of that symposium (McKerrow and
the ocean basins and continents during the Scotese, 1990; Scotese and Barrett, 1990).
Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The Mesozoic and
Cenozoic development of the ocean basins shown It is interesting to note that the oldest
in this atlas are based on these plate tectonic paleogeographic reconstruction in this atlas
models (Scotese et al., 1988). The work begun (Vendian Ice Age, 650 Ma) was the last map to be
at Texas has also born fruit in the form of the assembled (Scotese et al., 1993; Scotese, 1997).
global hotspot models of Mueller et al., 1994, In the early-1990's, as a result of the
and a digital age of the ocean floor database pioneering work of Moores (1991), Dalziel
(Mueller et al., 1996). (1991), and Hoffman (1991), it became clear that
the late Proterozoic was a time of
Though sea-floor spreading data are sufficient supercontinent assembly (Rodinia - 1100 ma),
to reconstruct the ocean basins, other subsequent breakup (approximately 750 Ma),
information must be used to unlock the Mesozoic reassembly (Pannotia, 600 Ma), and breakup (550
and Cenozoic history of the complex convergent Ma) (McKerrow et al., 1992). Preliminary
belts in China, S. E. Asia, the former Soviet paleomagnetic syntheses (Powell et al., 1993;
Meert and Van der Voo, 1994) also suggested that Paleoclimatic simulations have been run form
most of the Vendian glacial deposits were numerous time periods (Barron et al., 1994;
deposited at high paleo-latitudes. The Vendian Fawcett et al., 1994; Golonka et al., 1994;
paleogeographic map presented here is based on a Kutzbach and Ziegler, 1994; Otto-Bliesner et
model of late Proterozoic plate tectonics al., 1994; Valdes and Sellwood, 1992;), and a
developed by myself, Damien Nance (Ohio global; Phanerozoic database of lithologic
University) and W.S. McKerrow. indicators of climate has been assembled to test
the results of the climatic simulations (Boucot
The Next Atlas: A Digital Version et al., 2001).

Our understanding of the plate tectonic, All of these results, and more, must be
paleogeographic, and paleoclimatic development incorporated in the next version of the
of the Earth is an on-going project. Maps such Paleogeographic Atlas. But how?
as these, are at best a milestone, a progress
report, describing our current state of Though some aspect of the "next atlas" will be
knowledge and prejudice. In many respects these published as a series of maps such as these, I
maps are already out-of-date. New paleomagnetic envision that the next atlas will be a "digital
data summaries are available (Van der Voo, 1993; atlas". GIS technology, especially programs
Bocharova and Scotese, 1993), hot spot models such as ArcView*, now allows users to view and
have been refined and debated (Mueller et al., interact with the geographic data in a dynamic
1994), satellite altimetry data has revealed the and flexible way. Map information in the form
ocean floor in unprecedented detail, plate of points, lines and polygons can be queried
tectonic models have been updated for Asia based on attributes and replotted
(Sengor and Natalin, 1996), China (Yin and Nie, instantaneously in a variety of map formats and
1996), the Arctic & Circum-Pacific (Monger and scales.
Nokleberg, 1996), S.E. Asia (Rangin, 1990;
Bertrande and Scotese, 1993; Hall and Blundell, An Earth System History GIS, (ESH-GIS), has been
1996), the Former Soviet Union (Zonenshain, et developed by the PALEOMAP Project. The ESH-GIS
al., 1990; Bocharova, 1993), the regions runs under ArcView 3.X and is an archive of
surrounding Antarctica (Storey et al., 1996), Phanerozoic and Late Precambrian plate tectonic
and the early Paleozoic (Dalziel, 1997; reconstructions in shapefile format. The ESH-
MacNiocall et al., 1997; Jurdy et al., 1995; GIS is the foundation upon which the next
Cocks et al., 1997). Paleogeographic Atlas will be built.

Detailed paleogeographic maps are now available

for many parts of the world: Mesozoic and
Cenozoic coastlines (Smith et al., 1994), North
America (DNAG series; unpublished The Paleogeographic Method
paleogeographic maps of Cook and Bally, 1975),
Tethys (Dercourt et al 1994), Gondwana (Veevers
et al., 1996), the Permian (Scotese and The study of paleogeography has two principle
Langford, 1995; Ziegler et al. 1996), and the K- goals. The first goal is to map the past
T boundary (Upchurch et al., in press). positions of the continents. The second goal is
to illustrate the changing distribution of lithosphere and as the plates move across the
mountains, lowlands, shallow seas, and deep hot spot, a line of islands is generated (like
ocean basins through time. the Hawaiian islands). These hot spot tracks
are an accurate record of the motion of the
Mapping the Past Positions of the Continents plates during the last 120 million years.
It is unlikely that all hot spots are
The past positions of the continents can be completely immobile. The best evidence suggests
determined using the following multiple lines of that the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean hot
evidence: paleomagnetism, linear magnetic spots do not move very much (only 1% as fast as
anomalies, hot spots, paleobiogeography, the plates). The Pacific hot spots, on-the-
paleoclimatology, and geologic history. other-hand, have been slowly drifting northward.
Paleomagnetism. By measuring the The motion of the plates relative to the hot
remanent magnetic field often preserved in iron- spots can be compared with plate motions
bearing rock formations, paleomagnetic analysis predicted by sea floor spreading (see linear
can determine whether a rock was magnetized near magnetic anomalies) and paleomagnetism.
the Pole or near the Equator. Paleomagnetism Paleobiogeography. The past distribution
provides direct evidence of a continent's N-S of plants and animals can give important clues
(latitudinal) position, but does not constrain concerning the latitudinal position of the
its E-W (longitudinal) position. continents as well as their relative positions.
Linear Magnetic Anomalies. The Earth's Cold-water faunas can often be distinguished
magnetic field has another important property. from warm-water faunas, and ancient floras both
Like the Sun's magnetic field, the Earth's reflect paleo-temperature and paleo-rainfall.
magnetic field "flips" or reverses polarity. The similarity or dissimilarity of faunas and
Fluctuations, or "anomalies", in the intensity floras on different continents can be used to
of the magnetic field, occur at the boundaries estimate their geographic proximity. In
between normally magnetized sea floor, and sea addition, the evolutionary history of groups of
floor magnetized in the "reverse" direction. plants and animals on different continents can
The age of these linear magnetic anomalies can reveal when these continents were connected or
be determined using fossil evidence and isolated from each other.
radiometric age determinations. Because these Paleoclimatology. The Earth's climate is
magnetic anomalies form at the mid-ocean ridges, primarily a result of the redistribution of the
they tend to be long, linear features (hence the Sun's energy across the surface of the globe.
name "linear magnetic anomalies") that are It is warm near the Equator and cool near the
symmetrically disposed about the ridges axes. Poles. Wetness, or rainfall, also varies
The past positions of the continents during the systematically from the equator to the pole. It
last 150 million years can be directly is wet near the equator, dry in the subtropics,
reconstructed by superimposing linear magnetic wet in the temperate belts and dry near the
anomalies of the same age. poles. Certain kinds of rocks form under
Hot Spot Tracks. Some of the world's specific climatic conditions. For example coals
volcanoes are formed by jets of molten rock that occur where it is wet, bauxite occurs where it
probably rise at the boundary between the is warm and wet, evaporites and calcretes occur
Earth's core and mantle (about 3000 km deep). where it is warm and dry, and tillites occur
These rising plumes, or hot spots, puncture the where it is wet and cool. The ancient
distribution of these, and other, rock types can In contrast to the continents and ocean basins,
tell us how the global climate has changed which are permanent geographic features, the
through time and how the continents have height and location of mountain belts and the
traveled across climatic belts. shape of the Earth's shorelines constantly
Geologic and Tectonic History. In order change. Mountain belts either form where
to reconstruct the past positions of the oceanic lithosphere is subducted beneath the
continents it is necessary to understand the margin of a continent, giving rise to a linear
development of the plate tectonic boundaries range of mountains, like the Andes mountains of
that separate continents and bring them back western South America, or where continents
together again. Only by understanding the collide forming, high mountains and broad
regional geological and tectonic evolution of an plateaus like the Himalayan mountains and
area can you determine the location and timing Tibetan Plateau of central Asia. Less extensive
of rifting, subduction, continental collision mountains can also form when continents rift
and other major plate tectonic events. apart (e.g. East African Rift), or where hot
spots form volcanic uplifts.

Mapping the Changing Distribution of Mountains, In most cases mountain ranges take 10's of
Lowlands, Shallow Seas and Deep Ocean Basins millions of years to form, and depending on the
climate, may last for 100's of millions of
Some paleogeographic features change very slowly years. Though the Appalachian mountains of the
and are easy to map. Other paleogeographic eastern United States were formed over 300
features change very rapidly and, therefore, any million years ago, due to the collision of North
map, at best, is an approximation. In this America and western Africa, remnants of this
regard, the Earth, since the early Precambrian, collisional mountain belt still reach heights of
has been divided into deep ocean basins (average over than 2000 meters. The Himalayan Mountains,
depth 3.5 km) and high-standing continents the world's tallest mountain range, began to
(average elevation about 800 meters). rise from the sea nearly 50 million years ago
Continental lithosphere, because it is less when northern India collided with Eurasia. On
dense, is more buoyant and is not easily the paleogeographic maps shown in this atlas,
subducted, or recycled back into the Earth's the extent of the mountain ranges increases
interior. As a result, continents are made-up during the collisional phase and is slowly
of very old rocks, some dating back 3.8 billion reduced, by erosion, in subsequent maps.
years. The amount of continental lithosphere
has probably changed very little during the last In comparison to topographic features such as
2.6 billion years (possibly increasing 10-15%). mountain ranges, the Earth's shorelines are
What have changed are the shape and the ephemeral. The familiar shapes that
distribution of continents across the globe. characterize today's shorelines such as Hudson's
The ocean basins, on the other hand, are all Bay, the Florida peninsula, or the numerous
less than 150 million years old. Oceanic fiords of Norway, are all less than 12,000 years
lithosphere, because it is denser is continually old. The shape of the modern coastlines is the
recycled back into the interior of the Earth. result of a 70 meter rise in sea level that took
place in the last 12,000 years after the last
great ice sheet that covered much of North volume of water on the Earth since early
America and Europe had melted. Precambrian times.
Changes in sea level, therefore, are not due to
It is important to note that the shoreline, changes in the amount of water on the Earth, but
though the edge of land, is not the edge of the rather are due to changes in the shape and size
continent. In most cases, the continent extends of the ocean basins.
seaward 100's of kilometers beyond the
shoreline. The actual edge of the continent is
marked by the transition from the continental Chronological Review of Maps in this Atlas
slope to the continental rise. This steep
bathymetric gradient marks the boundary between
continental lithosphere and oceanic lithosphere The paleogeographic maps shown in this atlas
and is marked by the transition from light blue illustrate both the movement of the continents
(shallow shelf) to dark blue (deep ocean). and the changing distribution of mountains,
land, shallow sea, and deep sea during the last
The position of the shoreline is a function of 650 million years. In the following section is
both continental topography and sea level. a brief review of the tectonic, geologic, and
Though topography changes slowly (10's of climatic events portrayed by these maps.
millions of years), global sea level can change
rapidly (10's of thousand of years). Several Late Precambrian, 1100 - 545 mya. (Figure 1,
factors can affect sea-level change. As we have Vendian Period, 650 mya).
seen, one of this factors in the amount of ice The absence of fossils of hard-shelled organisms
on the continents. At times when great ice and the paucity of reliable paleomagnetic data
sheets covered the continents, sea level was low make it difficult to produce paleogeographic
and the continents were exposed. The last maps for much of the Precambrian. With
glacial maximum was 18,000 years ago. For the available data, 650 million years is about as
last 20 million years, the continents have been far back as we can go with any accuracy.
largely high and dry because there has been
extensive mountain building in Asia and there However, the late Precambrian is an especially
has been significant ice on Antarctica. Other interesting time because continents were
important global episodes of glaciation occurred colliding to form ancient supercontinents, and
300, 450 and 650 million years ago. The oldest because the Earth was locked in a major Ice Age.
known glacial episode occurred in the About 1100 million years ago, the supercontinent
Precambrian, approximately 2.2 billion years of Rodinia was assembled. Though its exact size
ago. and configuration are not known, it appears that
North America formed the core of this
Sea level also changes more slowly (10's of supercontinent. At that time, the east coast of
millions of years) due to changes in the volume North America was adjacent to western South
of the ocean basins. Water from the interior America and the west coast of North America lay
of the Earth, erupted as gas in volcanic next to Australia and Antarctica. Rodinia
eruptions, condensed on the cooling surface of split into two halves approximately 750 million
the Earth to form the world's oceans. However, years ago, opening the Panthalassic Ocean (see
there has been no significant addition to the Figure 2). North America rotated southward
towards the South Pole. The other half of forward before accurate paleogeographic maps
Rodinia, composed primarily of Antarctica, were available. As Figure 1 illustrates,
Australia, India, Arabia, and the continental mystery of the Late Precambrian Ice Age can be
fragments that would one day become China, explained by the fact that during the late
rotated counter-clockwise, northwards across the Precambrian many continents just happened to be
North Pole. Between these two halves, lay a at high latitudes (except for Australia). Ice
third continent, the Congo craton, made up of rafted debris and glacial deposits formed on
much of north-central Africa. The oceans these continents as they traveled across the
between these three continents were completely North and South Poles.
subducted by the end of the Precambrian and
these three continents collided to form a new Early and Middle Paleozoic, 545 - 360 mya.
supercontinent, called Pannotia. This major (Figure 2. Late Cambrian Period, Figure 3.
continent-continent collision is known as the Middle Ordovician, Figure 4. Middle Silurian,
Pan-African orogeny. Figure 5. Early Devonian) Pannotia, the
supercontinent that formed at the end of the
As mentioned previously, the climate was cold Precambrian Era, approximately 600 million years
during the Late Precambrian. Evidence of ago, had already begun to break apart by the
glaciation is found on nearly every continent. beginning of the Paleozoic Era. A new ocean,
Some researchers have proposed that it was so the Iapetus Ocean, widened between the ancient
cold that the Earth was completely frozen like a continents of Laurentia (North America), Baltica
giant snowball. Why cold conditions were so (Northern Europe), and Siberia. Gondwana, the
widespread during the late Precambrian has supercontinent that was assembled during the
puzzled geologists. Several hypotheses, now Pan-African orogeny, was the largest continent
known to be incorrect, have been proposed. One at this time, stretching from the Equator to the
explanation suggests that the Earth was tilted South Pole. During the Ordovician Period, warm
sideways so that the North Pole faced away from water deposits, such as limestones and salt, are
the Sun, and the South Pole faced towards the found in the equatorial regions of Gondwana
Sun. This would create a situation where 1/2 (Australia, India, China, and Antarctica), while
the Earth would broil under the Sun for 6 glacial deposits and ice-rafted debris occur in
months, while the other 1/2 of the Earth would the south polar areas of Gondwana (Africa and
face away from the Sun and completely freeze. South America).
Though tantalizing, no mechanism can be found
that would produce such a drastic tilt in the By middle Paleozoic time, approximately 400
Earth's axis. A second, unlikely hypothesis million years ago, the Iapetus Ocean had closed
proposes that the Earth was encircled by a rocky bringing Laurentia and Baltica crashing
and icy ring, much like the rings of Saturn and together. This continental collision, preceded
Uranus that cast a shadow on the Earth, cooling in many places by the obduction of marginal
the climate; however, no trace of this ring has island arcs, resulted in the formation of the
been found. Caledonide mountains in Scandinavia, northern
Great Britain and Greenland, and the Northern
We now know that, though very cold, there was Appalachian mountains along the eastern seaboard
probably nothing unusual going on during the of North America. It is also likely that by
Late Precambrian. These hypotheses were put middle Paleozoic times, North China and South
China had rifted away from the Indo-Australian Tethys Ocean, there were continents that were
margin of Gondwana, and were headed northwards separated from the supercontinent. These
across the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. continents were North and South China, and a
long "windshield-wiper"-shaped continent known
Throughout the Early and Middle Paleozoic, the as Cimmeria. Cimmeria consisted of parts of
expansive Panthalassic Ocean covered much of the Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and
northern hemisphere. Surrounding this ocean was Malaya. It appears to have rifted away from the
a subduction zone, much like the modern "ring- Indo-Australian margin of Gondwana during the
of-fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. Late Carboniferous - Early Permian. Together
with the Chinese continents, Cimmeria moved
Late Paleozoic, 360 - 245 mya. (Figure 6. Early northwards towards Eurasia, ultimately colliding
Carboniferous, Figure 7. Late Carboniferous, along the southern margin of Siberia during the
Figure 8. Late Permian). By the end of the late Triassic Period. It was only after the
Paleozoic Era, most of the oceans that had collision of these Asian fragments that all the
opened during the breakup of Pannotia were world's landmasses were joined together in a
consumed as the continents collided to form the supercontinent deserving of the name "Pangea".
supercontinent of Pangea. Centered on the
Equator, Pangea stretched from the South Pole to Early Mesozoic, 245 - 144 mya. (Figure 9. Early
the North Pole, and separated the Paleo-Tethys Triassic, Figure 10. Early Jurassic, Figure 11.
Ocean to the east, from the Panthalassic Ocean Late Jurassic) Pangea was assembled piece-wise.
to the west. During the Late Carboniferous and The continental collisions that lead to the
Early Permian the southern regions of Pangea formation of the supercontinent began in the
(southern South America and southern Africa, Devonian and continued through the Late
Antarctica, India, southern India, and Triassic. In a similar fashion, the
Australia) were glaciated. There is evidence of supercontinent of Pangea did not rift apart all
a north polar ice cap in eastern Siberia during at once, but rather was subdivided into smaller
the Late Permian. The broad Central Pangean continental blocks in three main episodes. The
mountain range formed an equatorial highland first episode of rifting began in the middle
that during late Carboniferous was the locus of Jurassic, about 180 million years ago. After an
coal production in an equatorial rainy belt. By episode of igneous activity along the east coast
the mid-Permian, the Central Pangean mountain of North America and the northwest coast of
range had moved northward into drier climates Africa, the Central Atlantic Ocean opened as
and the interior of North America and Northern North America moved to the northwest (See Figure
Europe became desert-like as the continued 11). This movement also gave rise to the Gulf
uplift of the mountain range blocked moisture- of Mexico as North America moved away from South
laden equatorial winds. America. At the same time, on the other side of
Africa, extensive volcanic eruptions along the
The term "Pangea" means, "all land". Though we adjacent margins of east Africa, Antarctica, and
call the supercontinent that formed at the end Madagascar heralded the formation of the western
of the Paleozoic Era, "Pangea", this Indian Ocean.
supercontinent probably did not include all the
landmasses that existed at that time. In the During the Mesozoic North America and Eurasia
eastern hemisphere, on either side of the Paleo- were joined together in one landmass, sometimes
called Laurasia. As the Central Atlantic Ocean Antarctica and southern Australia. Though there
opened, Laurasia rotated clockwise, sending may have been some at the poles during the Early
North America northward, and Eurasia southward. Cretaceous, there were no large ice caps at
Coals, which were abundant in eastern Asia anytime during the Mesozoic Era.
during the early Jurassic, were replaced by
deserts and salt deposits during the Late These mild climatic conditions were in part due
Jurassic as Asia moved from the wet temperate to the fact shallow seaways covered the
belt to the dry subtropics. This clockwise, continents during the Cretaceous. Warm water
see-saw motion of Laurasia also lead to the from the equatorial regions was also transported
closure of the wide V-shaped ocean, Tethys, that northward, warming the polar regions. These
separated Laurasia from the fragmenting southern seaways also tended to make local climates
supercontinent, Gondwana. milder, much like the modern Mediterranean Sea,
which has an ameliorating effect on the climate
Late Mesozoic, 144 - 66 mya. (Figure 12. Late of Europe.
Cretaceous Period, Figure 13,
Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary) The second phase Shallow seaways covered the continents because
in the breakup of Pangea began in the early sea level was 100 - 200 meters higher than
Cretaceous, about 140 million years ago. today. Higher sea level was due, in part, to
Gondwana continued to fragment as South America the creation of new rifts in the ocean basins
separated from Africa opening the South that, as discussed previously in this article,
Atlantic, and India together with Madagascar displaced water onto the continents. The
rifted away from Antarctica and the western Cretaceous was also a time of rapid sea-floor
margin of Australia opening the Eastern Indian spreading. Because of their broad profile,
Ocean (see Figure 7). The South Atlantic did rapidly spreading mid-ocean ridges displace more
not open all at once, but rather progressively water than do slow spreading mid-ocean ridges.
"unzipped" from south to north. That is why the Consequently, during times of rapid sea-floor
South Atlantic is wider to the south. spreading, sea level will tend to rise.

Other important plate tectonic events occurred Cenozoic Era, 66 - 0 mya. (Figure 14, Middle
during the Cretaceous Period. These include: Eocene, Figure 15. Middle Miocene) The third,
the initiation of rifting between North America and final phase in the breakup of Pangea took
and Europe, the counter-clockwise rotation of place during the early Cenozoic. North America
Iberia from France, The separation of India from and Greenland split away from Europe, and
Madagascar, the derivation of Cuba and Antarctica released Australia, which like India
Hispaniola from the Pacific, the uplift of the 50 million years earlier, moved rapidly
Rocky mountains, and the arrival of exotic northward on a collision course with Southeast
terranes (Wrangellia, Stikinia) along the Asia. The most recent rifting events, all
western margin of North America. taking place within the last 20 million years
include: the rifting a Arabia away from Africa
Globally, the climate during the Cretaceous opening the Red Sea, the creation of the east
Period, like the Jurassic and Triassic, was much African Rift System, the opening of the Sea of
warmer than today. Dinosaurs and palm trees Japan as Japan moved eastward into the Pacific,
were present north of the Arctic Circle and in and the northward motion of California and
northern Mexico, opening of the Gulf of
California. This phase of continental collision has raised
high mountains by horizontally compressing the
Though several new oceans have opened during the continental lithosphere. Though the continents
Cenozoic, the last 66 million years of Earth occupy the same volume, their area has decreased
history are better characterized as a time of slightly. Consequently, on a global scale, the
intense continental collision. The most area of the ocean basins has increased slightly
significant of these collisions has been the during the Cenozoic, at the expense of the
collision between India and Eurasia, which began continents. Because the ocean basins are
about 50 million years ago. During the Late larger, they can hold more water. As a result,
Cretaceous, India approached Eurasia at rates of sea level has fallen during the last 66 million
15 - 20 cm/yr - a plate tectonic speed record. years. In general, sea level is lower during
After colliding with marginal island arcs in the times of continental collision (early Devonian,
Late Cretaceous, the northern part of India, Late Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic).
Greater India, began to be subducted beneath
Eurasia raising the Tibetan Plateau. During times of low sea level the continents are
Interesting, Asia, rather than India, has emergent, land faunas flourish, migration routes
sustained most of the deformation associated between continents open up, the climate becomes
with this collision. This is because India is a more seasonal, and probably most importantly,
solid piece of continental lithosphere riding on the global climate tends to cool off. This is
a plate that is primarily made up of stronger largely because land tends to reflect the Sun's
oceanic lithosphere. Asia on the other hand, is energy back to space, while the oceans absorb
a loosely knit collage of continental fragments. the Sun's energy. Also, landmasses permit the
The collision zones, or sutures, between these growth of permanent ice sheets, which because
fragments are still warm, and hence, can be they are white reflect even more energy back to
easily reactivated. As India collided with space. The formation of ice on the continents,
Asia, these fragments were squeezed northwards of course, lowers sea level even further, which
and eastwards out of the way, along strike-slip results in more land, which cools the Earth,
faults that followed older sutures. Earthquakes forming more ice, and so on, and so on. The
along these faults continue to the present-day. lesson here is: once the Earth begins to cool
(or warm-up) positive feedback mechanisms push
The collision of India with Asia is just one of the Earth's climate system to greater and
a series of continental collisions that has all greater cooling (or heating). During the last
but closed the ocean great Tethys Ocean. From half of the Cenozoic the Earth began to cool
east to west these continent-continent off. Ice sheets formed first on Antarctica and
collisions are: Spain with France forming the then spread to the northern hemisphere. For the
Pyrenees mountains, Italy with France and last 5 million years the Earth has been in a
Switzerland forming the Alps, Greece and Turkey major Ice Age. There have been only a few times
with the Balkan States forming the Hellenide and in Earth's history when it has been as cold as
Dinaride mountains, Arabia with Iran forming the it has been during the last 5 million years.
Zagros mountains, India with Asia, and finally
the youngest collision, Australia with Modern World. (Figure 16. Last Glacial Maximum,
Indonesia. Figure 17. Present-day) 18,000 years ago,
glaciers and great sheets of ice covered all of Similarly, Australia has beached itself on the
Antarctica, and much of North America, northern doorstep of Southeast Asia and a new subduction
Europe, and the mountainous regions of the zone encircles Australia and extends westward
world. These ice sheets melted approximately across the Central Indian Ocean. It is
10,000 years ago giving rise to such familiar interesting to note that plate trajectories
geographic features as Hudson's Bay, the Great suggest that the East African Rift will not grow
Lakes, the English Channel, and the fiords of into a wide ocean.
Norway.
Though the Atlantic Ocean has widened,
The continental rifting and collisions that extensions of the Puerto Rican Trough and the
began in the late Cenozoic are continuing today. Scotia Arc have started a new subduction zone
Most notable are: the opening of the Red Sea and along the eastern edge of the Americas. In
Gulf of Aden, the rifting of East Africa, the time, this subduction zone will consume the
opening of the Gulf of California and the North and South Atlantic oceans.
northward translation of California west of the
San Andreas Fault, and the incipient collision The map of the world at 150 million years in the
of Australia with Indonesia giving rise to the future shows the contraction of the Atlantic and
mountain ranges of New Guinea. Indian Oceans. Antarctica has collided with
Australia, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge has nearly
Future World , 0 - 250 myf. (Figure 18 100 been subducted beneath the Eastern American
million years in future; Figure 19, 150 million subduction zone (Figure 19).
years in future; Figure 20, 250 million years in
future). Though there is no way of knowing what In the final reconstruction of future plate
the future geography of the Earth will be, it is motions (Figure 20), the Indo-Atlantic Ocean is
possible to project current plate motions into completely closed. North America has collided
the future and make an educated guess. The back against Africa, but in a more southerly
three maps presented here show the Earth at 100 position that juxtaposes Miami with Cape Town.
million, 150 million and 250 million years in South America wraps around the southern tip of
the future. In general the Atlantic and Indian Africa, with Patagonia in contact with Indonesia
oceans continue to widen until new subduction enclosing a remnant of the Indian Ocean.
zones recycle the ocean floor in these ocean Antarctica is once again at the South Pole, and
basins and bring the continents back together in a Pacific has grown wider, encircling half the
a new Pangean configuration some 250 million Earth.
years in the future.

The reconstruction of the world 50 million years Acknowledgements

in the future looks slightly askew (Figure 18).
On this map, North America is rotated counter- Special thanks to Ralph Scotese, who painted the
clockwise, while Eurasia is rotated clockwise maps, and to James R. Marlatt, Alan Smith, Shawn
bringing England closer to the North Pole and Stephens, and William Reilly, who helped to
Siberia down to warm subtropical latitudes. produce the computer graphic overlays.
Africa has collided with Europe and Arabia
closing the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
For additional information: email -
[email protected], FAX - 817 261 6293, or Cook, T.D., and Bally, A.W., 1975. Stratigraphic
phone, 817 275 1697. Atlas of North and Central America, Princeton
University Press, 272 pp.

*ArcView is a registered trademark of ESRI Dalziel, I.W. D., 1991. Pacific margins of
Laurentia and East Antarctica-Australia as a
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This atlas should be referenced as:

Scotese, C.R., 2001, Atlas of Earth History,
Volume 1, Paleogeography, PALEOMAP Project,
Arlington, Texas, 52 pp.
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