Gondwana

Gondwana,^[1][2] also called Gondwanaland, was a southern supercontinent. It formed when Pangaea broke up, starting 170 million years ago (mya), in the early middle Jurassic.^[3]

The global supercontinent Pangaea was complete 250 million years ago. Then it split into two smaller supercontinents, which were about the same size. The northern part of Pangaea became Laurasia, and the southern part became Gondwana.^[4] Over time, Gondwana drifted south, while Laurasia moved north.

Gondwana included most of the landmasses in today's southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia–New Guinea, and New Zealand. It originally included China, Siberia, Arabia and the Indian subcontinent, which have now moved entirely into the Northern Hemisphere.

Gondwana itself began to break up in the mid-Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago.

1. ↑ "Gondwana". Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Group. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
2. ↑ "Gondwanaland". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
3. ↑ Buchan, Craig (2004). Paper #207-8 - Linking subduction initiation, accretionary orogenesis and Supercontinent assembly. 2004 Denver Annual Meeting. Geological Society of America.
4. ↑ Houseman, Greg. "Dispersal of Gondwanaland". University of Leeds. Retrieved 21 Oct 2008.