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Which ancient landmasses collided to form Pangea?
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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 formation of the supercontinent Pangea was a gradual process involving the collision of several major paleocontinents and smaller landmasses.1
The assembly occurred in stages:
- Formation of Euramerica: During the Devonian Period, the paleocontinents Laurentia (comprising the North American craton) and Baltica (the Eastern European craton) joined with various microcontinents to form the landmass known as Euramerica.1
- Addition of Gondwana: By the beginning of the Permian Period, the northwestern coastline of Gondwana—a massive southern paleocontinent—collided with and attached to the southern portion of Euramerica.1
- Final Assembly: The process was completed during the middle of the Early Permian when the Angaran craton of Siberia fused to the existing landmass.1
Throughout this period, various smaller island arcs and fragments of continental crust were also welded onto the margins of the growing supercontinent.1