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When did the central Atlantic Ocean begin to form?
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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.
The central Atlantic Ocean began to form approximately 180 million years ago as the supercontinent Pangea began to break apart.12
This process was driven by plate tectonics, which caused the landmasses of the Western and Eastern hemispheres to separate. While rift faulting and related sedimentation began earlierāaround 230 million years agoāthe actual seafloor spreading in the proto-Atlantic basin occurred between approximately 180 and 160 million years ago. This rifting separated northwestern Africa from North America, initiating the development of the Atlantic Ocean basin.132