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How did radioactive dating help scientists test the Pangea hypothesis?

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Permian paleogeography — Pangea Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins near the end of the Permian Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.

Radioactive dating, also known as radiometric dating, was instrumental in transforming the Pangea hypothesis from a controversial idea into a scientifically accepted fact by providing precise, quantitative evidence of the Earth's geologic history.12

While Alfred Wegener originally proposed the existence of Pangea based on the "jigsaw" fit of coastlines and matching fossil records, his theory lacked a proven mechanism and precise chronological data. Modern geoscientists used improved analytical techniques for radiometric dating—such as measuring the decay of uranium to lead in zircon crystals—to determine the age of geologic events with high precision.231

By dating rock units on different continents, scientists were able to:
* Reassemble Ancient Mountain Belts: Absolute dating allowed researchers to identify rock units formed at the same time across separated landmasses. For example, the Appalachian chain was shown to be a single, continuous mountain belt that was later disassociated by the opening of the Atlantic Ocean approximately 200 million years ago.4
* Correlate Geologic Events: Radiometric dating confirmed that rock formations in North America, Europe, and Africa shared a common origin and overlapped in time, providing the necessary evidence to support the existence of Pangea.2