Why are some Permian glacial deposits located far from Earth’s modern polar regions?

The presence of Permian glacial deposits in regions far from today’s polar areas is explained by the theory of plate tectonics. During the Permian Period, the Earth’s landmasses were arranged differently, forming the supercontinent Pangea.123

These deposits were originally laid down in high-latitude, cold environments. Over the subsequent Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, tectonic transport moved these rocks thousands of kilometers from their original sites of deposition. For instance, glacial deposits found today in places like southern Africa, India, and parts of the Northern Hemisphere were positioned in cold, high-latitude regions when they were formed. When the Permian globe is reconstructed, these apparent geographic conflicts disappear, revealing a distribution of deposits that is consistent with the climate patterns of that time.1