Pangaea (from the
Greek for,
"all lands") is the name
Alfred Wegener used to refer to the
supercontinent which existed during the
Mesozoic period, before the process of
plate tectonics separated the component
continents. Pangaea broke up about 200
million years ago. When the continents first came together to form Pangaea,
mountains were formed; some of these ranges still exist; such as the
Appalachians and the
Urals. The vast ocean surrounding Pangaea was
Panthalassa.
The mantle under its former location is still hot and trying to rise upward. As a result, Africa sits several tens of meters higher than the other continents.
Pangaea broke into two parts: