IN REFERENCE TO WILSON CYCLE OR

SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE

PRESENTED BY
GOURAB HALDER
SUVANKAR GOSWAMI
UG
MIDNAPORE COLLEGE(AUTONOMOUS)
WEST BENGAL
 THE EARTH IS UNSTABLE AND ITS RELIEF FEATURES
OF FIRST ORDER – CONTINENTS AND OCEAN BASINS ARE
ALSO CHANGING , MOVING , AND REARRANGING THEMSELVES
OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS – AFFECTING EARTH’S CLIMATE AND
BIOLOGY . EVERY FEW HUNDRED MILLION YEARS , THE
CONTINENTS COMBINE TO CREATE MASSIVE , WORLD
SPANNING SUPERCONTINENTS.
HERE’S THE PAST AND FUTURE OF EARTH SUPERCONTINENTS –

ARCHEAN EON Vaalbara & Ur. 3 BILLION YEARS AGO

ARCHEAN EON Kanorland 2.7 BILLION YEARS AGO

PROTEROZOIC EON Columbia or Nuna 1.8 BILLION YEARS AGO

NEO - PROTEROZOIC EON Rodinia 1 BILLION YEARS AGO

CRYOGENIAN PERIOD Pannotia 720-635 MILLION YEARS AGO

1. Gondwana
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD 420 MILLION YEARS AGO
2. Euramerica

DEVONIAN PERIOD Pangaea 300-220 MILLION YEARS AGO

FUTURE EXPECTATION Novo-Pangaea Amasia Pangaea Proxima 250 MY LATER

• VAALBARA ::
• VAALBARA WAS A ARCHEAN SUPERCONTINENT
CONSISTS OF THE KAAPVAAL CRATON (NOW
LOCATED IN EASTERN SOUTH AFRICA ) AND THE
PILBARA CRATON ( NOW FOUND IN NORTH-
WESTERN AUSTRALIA) (3.6-2.8 BYA).

• E .S CHENEY DERIVED THE NAME FROM THE LAST

FOUR LETTERS OF EACH CRATON’S NAME.

UR. ::

UR IS A PROPOSED SUPERCONTINENT THAT

FORMED IN THE ARCHEAN EON (3.1 BILLION
YEARS AGO ) . IT MAY WILL HAVE SPENT MANY
MILLIONS OF YEARS AS THE ONLY CONTINENT
ON EARTH , WITH NOTHING BUT SOME TINY
ISLANDS TO KEEP IT COMPANY AND IT WAS
SMALLER THAN PRESENT DAY AUSTRALIA . TODAY
, UR LIVES ON AS PART OF INDIA , MADAGASCAR
AND AUSTRALIA .
 KENORLAND
KENORLAND FORMED ROUGHLY 2.7 BILLION YEARS AGO AND IT WAS
LARGER THAN UR OR VAALBARA . IT COMPRISED MOST OF THE
MODERN US AND CANADA , GREENLAND , THE SCANDINAVIAN
COUNTRIES , WESTERN AUSTRALIA , KALAHARI DESERT .
 COLUMBIA OR NUNA OR
HUDSONLAND :
THE FAST PROPER SUPERCONTINENT WAS
PROBABLY COLUMBIA , WHICH FORMED
AROUND 1.8 BILLION YEARS AGO . IT HAD
A LAND MASS OF ROUGHLY 50 MILLION
SQUARE KILOMETRE . FIRST PROPOSED BY
ROGERS AND SANTOSH (2002) .

RODINIA :
RODINIA ( “THE MOTHERLAND”) IS A
NEO PROTEROZOIC SUPERCONTINENT
THAT WAS ASSEMBLED 1.3-0.9 BILLION
YEARS AGO AND BROKE UP 750-633
MILLION YEARS AGO .
VALENTINE AND MOORES (1970) FIST
RECOGNIZED THIS AS PANGAEA-I AND IT
WAS RENAMED RODINIA BY Mc MENAMIN
& Mc MENAMIN (1990) .
• PANNOTIA
NAMED BY POWELL(1995)
• PANNOTIA (ALL SOUTHERN LAND) ,ALSO
KNOWN AS VENDIAN SUPERCONTINENT
,GREATER GONDWANA , PAN- AFRICAN
SUPERCONTINENT. IT WAS FORMED 650
MILLION YEARS AGO AND BROKE APART 560
MILLION YEARS AGO.

• PANGAEA
• PROPOUNDED BY ALFRED WEGENER (1912-
1922 IN HIS BOOK “ DIE ENTSTEHUNG DER
KONTINENT AND OZEAN”).

• PANGAEA WAS THE EARLIEST

SUPERCONTINENT WHICH FORMED 335 MYA
AND BROKE APART 175 MYA AND WAS
SURROUNDED BY SUPER OCEAN, NAMED
PANTHALASSA . THE PRESENT PACIFIC OCEAN
IS THE REMAINING PORTION OF
PANTHALASSA .
 THE WILSON CYCLE IS A MODEL
WHERE A CONTINENT RIFTS, FORMS AN
OCEAN BASIN IN BETWEEN, AND THEN
BEGINS A PROCESS OF CONVERGENCE
THAT LEADS TO THE COLLISION OF THE
TWO PLATES AND CLOSURE OF THE
OCEAN .
A WILSON CYCLE IS NOT THE SAME
AS A SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE, WHICH IS
THE BREAK UP OF ONE SUPERCONTINENT
AND DEVELOPMENT OF ANOTHER AND
TAKES PLACE ON GLOBAL SCALE. THE
WILSON CYCLE RARELY SYNCHRONIZES
WITH THE TIMING OF A
SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE.
ONE COMPLETE SUPERCONTINENT
CYCLE IS SAID TO TAKE 300 TO
500 MILLION YEARS
• PANTAGONAL DODECAHEDRAL HYPOTHESIS BY ELIE DE BEAUMONT
• TETRAHEDRAL HYPOTHESIS BY LOWTHIAN GREEN (1875)
• DRIFT THEORY BY ANTONIO SNIDER (1858)
• CONTINENTAL DRIFT BY F.B. TAYLOR (1908-1910)
• CONTINENTAL DRIFT BY ALFRED WEGENER (1912-1922)
• THERMAL CONVECTIVE CURRENT BY ARTHUR HOLMES (1928)
• SEA FLOOR SPREADING BY HARY HESS(1961) & DEITZ (1962)
• PLATE TECTONIC THEORY (1960S)
 SEA FLOOR SPREADING
PROPOUNDED BY PROF . HARRY HESS(1961) AND DEITZ (1962)

BASIC IDEA :
SEA FLOOR SPREADING IS A PROCESS THAT
OCCURS AT MID OCEANIC RIDGES, WHERE
NEW BASALTIC OCEANIC CRUST IS FORMED
THROUGH UPWELLING HOT MOLTEN LAVAS
FROM ASTHENOSPHERE WITH THERMAL
CONVECTIVE CURRENT AND THEN GRADUALLY
MOVES AWAY FROM THE MID-OCEANIC RIDGE
AND THE EXPANDING CRUSTS ARE DESTROYED
ALONG THE TRENCHES.

SPRADING RATES OF DIFFERENT

OCEANS (IN BOTH SIDE OF MOR) –
ATLANTIC – 2.0 TO 3.0 CM/YEAR
INDIAN – 2.0 TO 3.0 CM/YEAR
PACIFIC – 12 CM/YEAR
➢ ROCK TYPES (PILLOW BASALT )

➢ AGE OF ROCKS (NEW IN MIDDLE)

➢ ROCK PATTERNS (MATCH ON EITHER SIDE OF MOR, MAGNETIC REVERSALS )

➢ TRANSFORM FAULT

➢ SUBDUCTION OF GOYT

➢ PALEOMAGNETISM AND REVERSE POLARITY

➢ W.G VINE AND MATTHEUS CONDUCTED A MAGNETIC SURVEY OF CENTRAL

PART OF CARLSBERG RIDGE IN INDIAN OCEAN IN 1963 AND COMPUTED THE
MAGNETIC PROFILES ON THE BASIS OF GENERAL MAGNETISM. AND FOUND
COMPLETE PARALLELISM BETWEEN THE COMPUTED AND OBSERVED
PROFILES.

➢ COX, DOELL AND DALRYMPAL (1964),OPDYKE (1966) AND HERITZLER (1966)

PROVED – 1.REVERSAL IN MAGNETIC FIELD OF EARTH 2. NORMAL AND
REVERSE MAGNETIC ANOMALIES AND COMPLETE PARALLELISM IN MAGNETIC
ANOMALIES ON EITHER SIDE OF MOR .

➢ DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT IN 1968

➢ JOINT OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTES DEEP EARTH SAMPLING (GLOMAR

CHALLENGER)

➢ INTERNATIONAL PHASE OF OCEAN DRILLING IN 1975

➢ FRENCH AMERICAN MID OCEANIC UNDER SEA STUDY IN 1971

 PLATE TECTONIC THEORY
A GREAT SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT BASED ON CONTINENTAL DRIFT AND SEA
FLOOR SPREADING

INTRODUCTION:
THE TERM ‘PLATE’ FIRST USED BY JOHN TUZO WILSON. THEN MACKENZIE AND PARKAR
DISCUSSED IN DETAIL THE MECHANISM ON BASIS OF EULER’S GEOMETRICAL THEOREM IN 1967.
W.J.MORGAN AND LE PICHON ELABORATED THE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF PLATE TECTONICS IN 1968.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT:
PLATE : THE RIGID LITHOSPHERIC SLABS ARE TECHNICALLY CALLED PLATES.
MAJOR PLATES : 6- 7
MINOR PLATES : 20
PLATE TECTONICS : THE STUDY OF WHOLE MECHANISM OF EVOLUTION, NATURE AND MOTIONS OF
PLATES, DEFORMATION WITHIN PLATES AND INTERRACTIONS OF PLATE MARGINS WITH EACH
OTHER IS COLLECTIVELY CALLED AS PLATE TECTONICS.
1. CONVERGENT OR DESTRUCTIVE PLATE
MARGINS
2. DIVERGENT OR CONSTRUCTIVE PLATE
MARGINS
3. CONSERVATIVE OR TRANSFORM PLATE
MARGINS
WORLD DISTRIBUTION OF PLATES AND
RATE OF THEIR MOTIONS
FUTURE EXPECTATIONS (250 MYA LATER)
➢ NOVO PANGAEA :

POSTULATED BY ROY LIVERMORE IN THE LATE

1990S (CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY) .

IT IS A POSSIBLE FUTURE
SUPERCONTINENT . IT ASSUMES CLOSURE OF PACIFIC ,
DOCKING OF AUSTRALIA WITH EASTERN ASIA AND
NORTHWARD MOTION OF ANTARCTICA.

➢ AMASIA :

AMASIA IS A POSSIBLE,
FUTURE SUPERCONTINENT THAT COULD BE FORMED
BY THE MERGER OF ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA. THIS
PREDICTION RELIES MOSTLY ON THE FACT THAT
THE PACIFIC PLATE IS
ALREADY SUBDUCTING UNDER EURASIA AND NORTH
AMERICA, A PROCESS WHICH IF CONTINUED WILL
EVENTUALLY CAUSE THE PACIFIC TO CLOSE.
 PANGAEA ULTIMA OR PROXIMA

• PANGAEA ULTIMA (ALSO

CALLED PANGAEA PROXIMA, NEO-
PANGAEA, AND PANGAEA II) IS A POSSIBLE
FUTURE SUPERCONTINENT
CONFIGURATION. CONSISTENT WITH THE
SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE, PANGAEA
ULTIMA COULD OCCUR WITHIN THE NEXT
250 MILLION YEARS. THIS POTENTIAL
CONFIGURATION, HYPOTHESIZED
BY CHRISTOPHER SCOTESE, EARNED ITS
NAME FROM ITS SIMILARITY TO THE
PREVIOUS PANGAEA SUPERCONTINENT.
SCOTESE LATER RENAMED PANGAEA
ULTIMA (LAST PANGAEA) TO PANGAEA
PROXIMA (NEXT PANGAEA) TO ALLEVIATE
CONFUSION ABOUT THE NAME PANGAEA
ULTIMA WHICH COULD IMPLY THAT IT
WOULD BE THE LAST SUPERCONTINENT.
THANKS …..