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What's Gondwana

The Gondwana Metal-Potential GIS

The Gondwana Breakup

Africa, Arabia, India, South America, Antarctica and Australia are continental blocks resulting from the breakup of the supercontinent, Gondwana, which was initiated around 150 Ma. Gondwana represents approximately one third of the world's continental land and contains about 60% of its mineral resources. 

The Gondwana assembly: 
Gondwana was assembled into a distinct form between 700 and 500 Ma, during the Neoproterozoic orogenic events, by tectonic accretion of older cratons, island arcs and oceanic crust relics.
Those cratons are composed of Archean, Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic terranes, and are the result of the breakup (at circa 750 Ma) of the former supercontinent of Mesoproterozoic age called Rodinia (1000Ma). 

The Gondwana Paleozoic evolution: 
During the Paleozoic, the movement of Gondwana from the Southern pole Northwards induced the closure of the Rheic Ocean, which separated Gondwana from the Northern hemisphere's continental blocks (Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia, Kazakhstan, North China...). The collision of those two continental entities during the Carboniferous, and the subsequent closure of the Oural during the Permian, led to the formation of a world-wide supercontinent, Pangea, composed of Gondwana in the South and Laurasia in the North. 

The Gondwana breakup Gondwana break-up animation:
Since the Jurassic, the Pangea, and therefore also Gondwana, were fragmented and began their evolution into the present-day configuration of the continents, as displayed by the present animation. 
 

See the Gondwana Break-up animation !
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