Precambrian Animation by CR Scotese

Ancient times and ancient continents. This animation shows the movements of Rodinia (1100Ma - 750Ma) and Pannotia (600Ma - 560Ma) during the late Precambrian (Neoproterozoic) and early Paleozoic (up to 400Ma). The aniamtion was made using the program GPlates by EarthByte.

Rodinia broke apart as a result of its collision with the Congo craton (~750Ma). North Rodinia swung southward and South Rodinia swung northward, eventually colliding together to form Pannotia (~600Ma).

The Paleozoic continents of Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia rifted away from Pannotia (580Ma), leaving the supercontinent of Gondwana at the South Pole.

This animation is based on a plate tectonic model that I built in 2006 in preparation for a talk on Rodinia and Pannotia that I presented at the Geological Society of London.

For more information see:
Scotese, C.R., 2009. Late Proterozoic plate tectonics and paleogeography: A tale of two supercontinents, Rodinia and Pannotia, in Global Neoproterozoic petroleum systems: The emerging potential in North Africa, J. Craig, J. Thurow, A. Whitman, and Y. Abutarruma (editors), Geological Society of London Special Publication 326, pp. 67-83.

You can download a copy of Scotese(2009) at:

Music: Gymnopedia No.3 by W. Meixsell

[seva]

So thats how Paleopacific (Panthalasa) was born because of Kongo craton slammed into Rodinia and made the supercontinent split into two halves. Such a beauty of plate tectonics.

[GregInEastTennessee]

I'm having trouble figuring out the mountains in NC and TN. I've heard the story about how the Appalachians were formed by the formation of Pangaea, But there is a big mountain/pluton/massif near Cashiers NC called Whiteside mountain. It seems to predate the formation of Pangaea. I've watched your animations, but it's still not clear to me how much vulcanism was present > 300 Ma in NC.
I live in TN near the Tennessee River and everything for miles is just limestone. But as I travel east, there seems to be a transition to granite. There is a huge copper deposit in The Great Copper Basin and there's gold along the TN/NC border. Then farther east is this mysterious mountain.
I hope to spend some time exploring and learning about it this spring (virus permitting). Maybe you could do a close up animation from like 700Ma to 200Ma on just the east coast of the us, particularly looking at NC.
I may be way off on this, but the more I read, the more questions I have.
By the way, Nick Zentner turned a whole bunch of us on to your animations. I think they're wonderful. Thank you for your hard work. Greg Whitehead, Ten Mile, TN. :)

[stevenbaumann]

Thanks for Rodinia. Some people at Michigan tech hypothesize that the mid continental Rift may have been partially successful, splitting off Amazonia. I have problems with that. Your thoughts?

[nickynockyknackynoo]

The Scotese animations are just superb and a revelation to those of us that never found History or Geology interesting at school in the late 50's and early 60's - but who have come 'alight' with all the Paleogeography becoming available.
Thank you so much.
One last request. I am particularly interested in the development of the UK around 10 to 100 MYA. If ever any new animations are made of the area, please could you make it run slower than these. It makes it easier for my retired and
aged brain to try and make sense of it. Thanks

[albireo]

This in my opinion is a near-fully accurate depiction of Rodinia and it’s breakup, apart from the start. Rodinia forms around 1100 million years ago, with the Congo Continent attached until 950mya, where it drifts northward to the equator. A rift forms in the Mirovian Ocean, which is the main body of water at this time, causing Congo Continent to slam into Rodinia and splitting it into 2/3 pieces. The end is also a bit rough, since Pangea formed around 325mya. Laurentia began to drift southward and join Baltica around 365mya, to eventually form Pangea.

[pbrowera]

Highlights:

742ma -- North America begins to pivot away from Australia and Antarctica (Canada was mostly joined to eastern Australia and the western USA and northern Mexico were linked to Antarctica; Australia and Antarctica would be together for another 670 ma.

708 ma -- North America (Mexico, with California still to the west of northern Mexico), has fully pivoted away from Antarctica. The northeast-southwest split of land whence forms the Pacific Ocean remains in existence to this day.

682 ma -- South America begins to unify as easternmost (then connected to Africa) South America unifies with western and southern South America, beginning in Uruguay and trending northward.

600 ma -- South America is then fully unified.

579 ma -- northwestern Africa and the main part of Africa merge, and southern Europe comes into existence. Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Albania, coastal Croatia, and western Greece become identifiable to the north of Africa.

575ma -- North America (not including what would become the southeastern USA and a corridor from Maryland to Newfoundland) begins to pivot away from western South America. The southeastern sector of the Pacific Ocean begins to form, as does the section of the North Atlantic Ocean between Baltica and the mid-latitude regions of a predecessor of the Atlantic Ocean. Eastern Canada and Europe split off first, which is hard to see because this split begins hear the North Pole.

563ma -- the split between North America and South America is complete as mid-Mexico and Honduras split away from southern Chile.

536ma -- Southern Mongolia, northeastern China, and the trans-Amur region of Siberia come into existence.

493ma -- Avalonia, which consists of lands that would eventually end up on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean

440ma -- Avalonia connects to Baltica near the modern German-Polish border.

425ma --North America and western Europe collide, Greenland meeting Scandinavia and a now-unified Britain and Ireland. Newfoundland, much of New England, and the Maritime Provinces are grafted onto North America.

Note: directions of continents refer to modern orientations and not to those of the time.

[FourBrothers-sf]

We have been looking for this video for ages. Now that we found it, we can enjoy it as we did in Primary School. We like it.

[asjenmensink]

First of all: Fantastic animations. This really is intriguing content. It's fascinating to see all the bits of Central and South Europe, the Middle East and South Asia being added to the Baltic and Siberian Cratons in a sort of continuous conveyor belt. that has bee running for the last 400 milion years
But if i see it right, was Avalonia a part of the extended crust of "Florida" and South America prior to joining Baltica? I'm Dutch. Therefore the interest, . And do we know anything certain about its whereabouts before the breakup of Pannotia?

[frankolioman]

Not very much happened in the first 400 million years, why was that?

[fs]

KZ = Kazachstan? It somewhat confuses me that this 'continent' suddenly emerges at 420 Ma. Does that mean that its earlier postion is unknown? Or that this part of continental crust just came into being at this time?

[ОлегГутченко]

Оказывается, известное у нас в России пиво назвали в честь древнего континента Балтика.
А также непривычно видеть, как Австралия и Антарктида находятся в северном полушарии, а Европа и Северная Америка в южном полушарии.

[nathantracey]

Could you send me a download link to the files you made/used for this? I'd like to use them with GPlates myself. Thanks in advance!