Continents that no Longer Exist

The continents and continental configurations have been merged with other regions and named a specific continent. Our globe has changed drastically over the past few years and will keep changing. The entire land mass of our continental area has been changed and merged into another continent or region. The last supercontinent, which existed 700 million years ago, was Rodinia and Pangea. Now this continent does not exist. 

Continental Configurations Of Non-Existent Continents

Here are some of the continental configurations which do not exist today according to our geographical sense of existence:

• UR

This continent is said to be the first-ever continent on our Earth. This one is named after the German word ” original ”. Compared to present-day Australia, UR is a bit smaller than in our geographical record of about 3 billion years ago. This continent first became part of Pangaea, and after splitting up from Pangaea, UR separated into different regions – Madagascar, India, and Australia.

• Pangaea

Pangea is a well-known continent that existed approximately 200 billion years ago. Then this continent broke into three different regions – Laurasia, Gondwana, and Africa. It was a huge area by geographic extent, covering up to 90% of today’s continental configurations. 

• Siberia

This continent was more tropical than many regions of today’s area and was a separate continent for more than a hundred million years. 

• Gondwanaland

This large supercontinent existed in the southern region’s hemisphere and started to break into pieces 200 million years ago. The breakup continents formed different names as the continents of Antarctica, Australia, India, Africa, and South America.

• Laurasia

This supercontinent existed 200 million years ago and was situated in the hemisphere of the northern region. The continents separated and formed the continents of today’s Europe, Asia, and North America. 

• South china

South China had its distinctive identity, which existed more than 200 million years ago. It combined with another separate entity region, North China, formed a single separative form between 215 and 175 million years ago.

• Pannotia

This supercontinent’s existence was very short, and it was located in the southern hemisphere region. After the division of the supercontinent Th olRodinia, Pannonia united Siberia, Baltica, Laurentia, and Gondwana for a very short time.

• Laurentia

This supercontinent was a prehistoric continent with many countries in the present-day world, including Greenland, Scotland, North America, and the northern islands. This land parted its way with kenorland and managed to contend with geographical emancipation many times.

• Euramerica

Euramerica was a continent formed 400 million years ago by forming the linked entire land mass Baltica and Laurentia. These continents have unique oxidised rick deposits, due to which are also known as the ‘old red sandstone continent’.

Some continents existed a few million years ago, and there is evidence of these continents. There are many more indications that convinced geologists of the existence of supercontinents.

Evidence of Supercontinents

This evidence of supercontinent existence has been proved through the study of ancient geography known as Paleography, in which there is a theory of all supercontinents that existed before.

• Fossil evidence

This piece of evidence proves continental drift. Similar fossils of plants and animals in rocks of the same age were found on the shores of different continents. This suggests the theory of continental drift and the existence of those supercontinents.

• Plate tectonics

Tectonic plates are pieces of crust and lithosphere, and the concept of plate tectonics theory suggests the evidence of drift and the existence of continental configurations.

There are a total of seven plates:

1. African plate

2. Eurasian plate

3. Indo-Australian plate

4. North American plate

5. Antarctic plate

6. Pacific plate

7. South American plate

• Rock patterns

Another piece of evidence proving Pangea’s existence in the geographical area is the patterns over rock strata. Geologists have discovered many theories and evidence about the existence of subcontinents and found different rock patterns on continents close to each other. Geologists were further convinced of this supercontinent’s presence when they discovered that even rock continents that appear to have once fit together match each other. This demonstrates that continents must have grown apart as similar rock stratification couldn’t have been coincidental.

Conclusion

These continents do not exist anymore, although some are still about the geographical area; the only difference is that they have relocated themselves to different locations on the planet due to plate tectonics. All of the supercontinents that were there a few million years ago have shifted their locations or joined together to form a new supercontinent that goes by a different name. These shattered remnants of once-massive supercontinents make up what we now refer to as the Earth’s continents.