When did continental rifting begin to split Pangea?

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

Continental rifting that began to split the supercontinent Pangea occurred during the Late Triassic Period.

While the Earth's crust was relatively quiescent at the start of the Triassic, plate tectonic activity increased toward the end of the period, initiating a phase of continental rifting. Specifically, this rifting began between Laurasia and Gondwana, which allowed the Tethys Sea to extend further westward toward Gibraltar. Paleomagnetic data, which tracks the apparent movement of Earth's magnetic poles, confirms that the divergence of continental margins for regions such as Africa and North America began during this Late Triassic interval, marking the onset of the supercontinent's separation.12