Supercontinents in earth history

Understanding the formation of cratons and orogenic belts is critical to the modelling of supercontinental assemblies. Continental cratons began to assemble by 3000 Ma or possibly earlier. The oldest assembly, Ur, was followed by Arctica at similar to2500 Ma and Atlantica at similar to2000 Ma. These three continental blocks apparently remained coherent until the breakup of Pangea. Nearly all of earth's continental blocks were assembled into one large landmass during at least three times in earth history. The oldest assembly comparable in size to Pangea was probably Columbia, which formed at similar to1800 Ma and began to rift at similar to1500 Ma. Columbia was followed by Rodinia, which lasted from similar to1100 Ma to 700 Ma. East and West Gondwana combined to form Gondwana at similar to500 Ma, and it joined with Laurasia to form Pangea at similar to250 Ma.