Effects of the Plate Tectonic Supercycle

1. Sea levels are low for a supercontinent because continents are pressed together and
elevated due to mountain range formation. There is old coal sea floor the subsides into the
mantle.
2. Increase weathering is experience as high young mountain are rapidly weathered and
eroded. These rocks are broken up in land slides and end up in river channels.
3. Adaptive radiation of marsupial that took place in southern America and Australia that
occurred after the breakup of Pangea. Another example is the proliferation of cyanobacteria
when Kenorland broke up.
4. Rapid weathering of mountains transports calcium into the ocean, This calcium combines
with carbonate in the ocean to precipice as calcium sediments. Atmosphere carbon dioxide
dissolves into the oceans replace the carbonate, this reduces the amount of co2 in the
atmosphere.
5. Continental ice sheets are created from the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
producing a natural greenhouse effect. his makes it more likely that ice sheets will form
in areas near the poles. Ice sheets are white and reflect solar radiation, leading to further
cooling and global icehouse conditions.
6. Negative effect is less biodiversity, due to the shallow water habitats are drastically reduced,
resulting in loss of habitat and extinction events. One positive effect of supercontinent
formation on marine habitats and organisms is that the minerals released by weathering act
as fertiliser for marine plants and provide more minerals for organisms to use in building
hard parts (calcium carbonate).
7. The break-up of a supercontinent may cause extinction in a location where conditions
change more quickly than organisms can adapt (for example, most plants and animals on
Antarctica). Adaptive radiation may occur if ancestral populations are isolated in different
areas and many variants adapt to different aspects of new conditions.