Supercontinents

A supercontinent is one landmass that holds most of Earth's continents. The best known are Rodinia, about 1,000 to 650 million years ago, and Pangea, about 320 to 200 million years ago; Gondwana was a huge southern continent, and Pannotia, proposed for the end of the Precambrian about 560 million years ago, is disputed.

Last updated 11 October 2026

Supercontinent timeline

Ages are in millions of years ago Ma. Million years ago. Ma stands for megaannum, one million years. Source , as given in each source. Plate models disagree on the details of deep time, so read the older dates as ranges.

Data source: GPlates Web Service, model MULLER2022, CC BY 4.0.

Key facts

1. The word Pangea means "all lands" in Greek. Before plate tectonics, some people already saw today's continents as the broken pieces of older supercontinents. USGS, This Dynamic Earth: Historical perspective
2. The MULLER2022 model dates the assembly of Rodinia to 1,000 to 870 million years ago, its stable phase to 940 to 870 million years ago, and its break-up to about 870 to 650 million years ago. Müller et al. (2022), A tectonic-rules-based mantle reference frame since 1 billion years ago, Solid Earth 13
3. The same model places the formation of Gondwana between 600 and 550 million years ago, and has Pangea assembled by 320 million years ago. Müller et al. (2022), A tectonic-rules-based mantle reference frame since 1 billion years ago, Solid Earth 13
4. Pangea and Rodinia are not in doubt, but whether Pannotia existed is still argued. Kroner, Stephan, Romer and Roscher (2021), Paleozoic plate kinematics during the Pannotia-Pangaea supercontinent cycle, Geological Society, London, Special Publications 503, 83-104
5. In the Scotese reconstruction, Pannotia formed when three continents collided in the Pan-African event about 650 to 550 million years ago, was assembled by about 560 million years ago, and broke apart soon after into Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana. Scotese (2009), Late Proterozoic plate tectonics and palaeogeography: a tale of two supercontinents, Rodinia and Pannotia, Geological Society, London, Special Publications 326, 67-83
6. Nance and Murphy call Pannotia a late Neoproterozoic supercontinent but say the map and age evidence for it is still equivocal. Nance and Murphy (2019), Supercontinents and the case for Pannotia, Geological Society, London, Special Publications 470, 65-86
7. Today the centers of eight continents are 10,420 km apart on average. In the plate model they were 8,405 km apart in Pangea at 300 million years ago and 10,338 km apart in Rodinia at 900 million years ago. Müller et al. (2022), A tectonic-rules-based mantle reference frame since 1 billion years ago, Solid Earth 13

What makes a supercontinent

A supercontinent Supercontinent. A large landmass made of most or all of the continents joined together, such as Pangea. Source is a landmass made of most or all of the continents of its time. The continents ride on plates, so they keep moving: they gather into one mass, stay together for tens of millions of years, then split apart and drift until they meet again. Geologists call the repeat the supercontinent cycle.

Two of them are well established. Rodinia Rodinia. A supercontinent that assembled about 1,000 to 870 million years ago and broke apart about 870 to 650 million years ago. Source formed around a billion years ago, before complex animals. Pangea formed about 320 million years ago and was the world of the early dinosaurs. Between them, the southern continents gathered into Gondwana Gondwana. Gondwanaland, the southern of the two landmasses Pangaea first broke into, as proposed by Alexander Du Toit. Source , which later joined the northern lands to make Pangea. Pannotia is a proposed, short-lived supercontinent from the end of the Precambrian, between Rodinia and Pangea, and its existence is still argued.

How it works: the supercontinent cycle

1. Continents close the oceans between them and collide, building mountain belts where they join.
2. The joined landmass stays together while its edges keep subducting ocean floor.
3. Rifts open inside it, and new oceans start to spread between the pieces.
4. The pieces drift apart, and over hundreds of millions of years they gather again somewhere else.

In the MULLER2022 model, Rodinia assembled from 1,000 to 870 million years ago, broke up from about 870 to 650 million years ago, Gondwana formed by 550 million years ago, and Pangea held from 320 to about 200 million years ago.

How close the continents were

One way to see the cycle in the data: take one point near the middle of each of eight continents, move it back in time with the plate model and measure the average distance between them. A small number means a tight cluster.

Data source: GPlates Web Service, model MULLER2022, CC BY 4.0. Download: CSV .

Points: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Siberia, India, Australia and Antarctica. The 0 to 200 Ma rows use MULLER2019, the older rows MULLER2022. A cluster can be tight without being one solid landmass, so treat this as a rough measure.

The supercontinents compared

Data source: GPlates Web Service, model MULLER2022, CC BY 4.0.

Maps

For the plates that carry the continents today, open the tectonic plates map.