A similar decay was characteristic for all of the supercontinents.
Scientists said that the supercontinents of the Earth was split in two stages: first, within them there crack-a rift that is slowly “stretched”.
Then the connection between the parts suddenly exploded, and out of them formed the “normal” continents. The findings of scientists was published in the journal Nature.
Researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which broke up the supercontinent, after examining the fault line, which broke up Gondwana, uniting Europe and Asia. Gondwana emerged after the breakup of Pangaea about 180 million years ago and broke up about 125 to 100 million years ago.
The calculations of scientists showed that the first stage of the break-up of continents lasted for several million years, and the second was practically instantaneous in geological terms. At the first stage within the earth cracks appeared, which are “pushing” their parts at a rate of several millimeters per year. Over time, the pressure increased significantly, the rocks burst, and the continents are formed of separate parts, moving in different directions with a much higher speed.
According to researchers, this collapse was typical of all the supercontinents that have ever existed on Earth.
