When I first started making this website, I took it for granted
that everyone knows what Gondwana is. I have since learned that not
everyone does..
Gondwana was one of the supercontinents in the Earth's
history, and Australia was a part of it.
As you would likely
know, the Earth's crust consists of tectonic plates that are in very
slow but constant movement.
They move because magma, which is the
liquid substance under the Earth's crust, moves due to local changes in
pressures and temperatures. They move in different directions.
At the
boundaries where two plates collide, mountains are built. At the
boundaries where two plates drift apart, magma rises to the surface,
forms into solid rock, and turns into Earth's crust.
At some other
boundaries one plate may glide in under the other etc..
Over millions and millions of years, those movements move continents
around.
At one stage, about 250 million years ago, all the Earth's
continents were joined together in the supercontinent Pangaea.
About
200 million years ago, Pangaea was broken into two new supercontients -
the northern Laurasia, and the southern Gondwana.
Laurasia contained
the contients that today are found in the Northern Hemisphere, except
India.
Gondwana contained the contients that today are found in the
Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica, South America, Australia), plus Africa
and India.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
Disclaimer: Although
best efforts have been made to ensure
that all the information on this site is correct,
gondwananet.com is not to be blamed should there be a mistake.
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does that mean?