How do scientists describe the history of supercontinents on Earth?
Scientists believe there have been several supercontinental arrangements in the history of the Earth. The first known supercontinent is called Rodinia (from Russian, meaning “homeland”), and it is thought to have formed about 1.1 billion years ago. Although the exact size and configuration of Rodinia cannot be estimated, rocks of ancestral North America are thought to have formed the core of the giant continent. About 750 million years ago, evidence suggests that Rodinia fragmented into pieces that drifted apart. Approximately 600 million years ago, those pieces collided again forming a new supercontinent, Pannotia. Scientists think Pannotia broke up about 550 million years ago into several smaller fragments: Laurentia (the core of what is now North America), Baltica (northern Europe), other small fragments, and one very large fragment called Gondwanaland, which contained the land from modern day China, India, Africa, South America, and Antarctica. Between 550 and 350 million years ago
