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When did Pangea begin to break apart?
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paleogeography
Watch a time-lapse of Earth changing through geologic time, from the Cambrian Era to the projected period of Pangea Proxima.
The supercontinent Pangea began to break apart approximately 200 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic Epoch.1
Rather than splitting all at once, the supercontinent fragmented in distinct stages driven by plate tectonics. The first oceans formed from this process about 180 million years ago, including the central Atlantic Ocean and the southwestern Indian Ocean. Subsequent rifting events occurred over millions of years, eventually leading to the configuration of the modern continents.1