1.
Camelotia
–
Paleontologists are divided on which family it may belong to, in the past, Camelotia has generally been assigned to the prosauropods, but this group of primitive dinosaurs is in constant flux. The genus is now considered a member of the family Melanorosauridae, the type specimens, syntypes SAM3449 and SAM3450, were described and named in 1985 by Galton. They were collected from the Triassic-Jurassic Westbury Formation, dating to the latest Rhaetian, the fossils includes the specimens BMNH R2870-R2874, R2876-R2878, with vertebrae, ribs, and parts of the pubis, ischium and hind limb. The type species, C. borealis, was first described by Galton in 1985, dinosaurs formerly known as Avalonianus and Gresslyosaurus turned out to be Camelotia. From the fragmentary remains of Camelotia, part of the skeleton can be reconstructed, Camelotia likely had a short neck supporting a fairly large skull with small eyes. Its jaws contained many small-to-medium-sized, serrated, leaf-shaped teeth and its hands and feet had five digits each, the hands in particular were long and narrow, and bore a large claw. The forelimbs were longer than the hindlimbs, in contrast to the more derived sauropods, on average, it was 11 metres long,4 metres tall, and weighed 10 metric tons. The largest individuals had a length of 12 metres. Notes on the Melanorosauridae, a family of large prosauropod dinosaurs, archives of the dinosaur mailing list
Camelotia
Camelotia
–
v
2.
LittleBigPlanet 2
–
LittleBigPlanet 2 is a puzzle-platformer video game that features user-generated content. The game is developed by Media Molecule, published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for PlayStation 3 and it was originally scheduled for release in November 2010 but was delayed until January 2011. The game was released in North America on 18 January 2011, in mainland Europe on 19 January 2011, in Australia and New Zealand on 20 January 2011 and the UK and Ireland on 21 January 2011. It is a sequel to the critically acclaimed 2008 title LittleBigPlanet. Most of the more than 3 million levels created by users in the first game carry over and are playable and editable in LittleBigPlanet 2, unlike its predecessor, which was marketed as a platform game, LittleBigPlanet 2 was marketed as a platform for games. While still retaining the three-layer,2, experienced players may also choose to create and customise their own heads-up display to accommodate their game type. As well as including a selection of original and licensed music. Multiple levels can be linked together, so that one level immediately takes the player to the next in the series. A new tool to assist in creation is the Controlinator. This allows players to specific actions, such as button presses or Sixaxis motion control. Media Molecule plans to update the game with further items. Enemy creation has also been improved, players can now create Sackbots, which are non-player characters whose AI can be controlled by the level creator. Options include determining weak points on the Sackbots, as well as programming routines for the AI to follow, Sackbots can be customised using costumes and decorations in the same way that the player character is and the AI for may be copied and pasted between multiple Sackbots. Sackbots may also be controlled by the aforementioned controlinators, All downloadable content from the first game is usable in this sequel, as are most user-made levels from LittleBigPlanet. As of June 2013, almost 8 million levels have been uploaded and created for both the LBP games on PS3, players continue Sackboys journey after the events of the first game and the portable version are brought to an end. An inter-dimensional vacuum cleaner called the Negativitron appears over the skies of LittleBigPlanet and begins to suck up its inhabitants, Larry Da Vinci, the leader of a semi-secret, semi-organised group known as The Alliance, comes to Sackboys rescue, saving him from the Negativitron. The organisation is dedicated to battling with the Negativitron and defeating it before it destroys Craftworld, after Sackboy passes the tests in Larrys Hideout, he tells him that they must get to Victoria Von Bathyspheres Laboratory, since she has built a Sackbot army for the Alliance. However, the moment they get there, the Negativitron attacks and sucks up some of the lab, Victoria, after escaping on her train, tells the group that they need to get into the factory and shut down the machine making the Meanies
LittleBigPlanet 2
–
LittleBigPlanet 2 European box art
LittleBigPlanet 2
–
Sackbots can be programmed to follow Sackboy.
LittleBigPlanet 2
–
LBP.me allows people to search for levels from a web browser.
LittleBigPlanet 2
–
The game engine from the first game (left) has undergone major improvements for the sequel (right) including enhancements to the lighting and particle systems.
3.
Paleozoic
–
The Paleozoic Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon, from 541 to 252.17 million years ago. It is the longest of the Phanerozoic eras, and is subdivided into six periods, the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous. The Paleozoic comes after the Neoproterozoic era of the Proterozoic and is followed by the Mesozoic, the Paleozoic was a time of dramatic geological, climatic, and evolutionary change. The Cambrian witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earths history, known as the Cambrian explosion, fish, arthropods, amphibians, anapsids, synapsids, euryapsids and diapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned onto land, and by the late Paleozoic, Great forests of primitive plants covered the continents, many of which formed the coal beds of Europe and eastern North America. Towards the end of the era, large, sophisticated diapsids and synapsids were dominant, the Paleozoic Era ended with the largest extinction event in the history of Earth, the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The effects of this catastrophe were so devastating that it took life on land 30 million years into the Mesozoic Era to recover, recovery of life in the sea may have been much faster. The Paleozoic era began and ended with supercontinents and in between were the rise of mountains along the margins, and flooding and draining of shallow seas between. At its start, the supercontinent Pannotia broke up, paleoclimatic studies and evidence of glaciers indicate that central Africa was most likely in the polar regions during the early Paleozoic. During the early Paleozoic, the huge continent Gondwana formed or was forming, by mid-Paleozoic, the collision of North America and Europe produced the Acadian-Caledonian uplifts, and a subduction plate uplifted eastern Australia. There are six periods in the Paleozoic Era, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, the Cambrian spans from 541 million years to 485 million years and is the first period of the Paleozoic era of the Phanerozoic. The Cambrian marked a boom in evolution in an event known as the Cambrian explosion in which the largest number of creatures evolved in any period of the history of the Earth. Creatures like algae evolved, but the most ubiquitous of that period were the armored arthropods, almost all marine phyla evolved in this period. During this time, the supercontinent Pannotia begins to break up, the Ordovician spanned from 485 million years to 443 million years ago. The Ordovician is a time in Earths history in many of the biological classes still prevalent today evolved, such as primitive fish, cephalopods. The most common forms of life, however, were trilobites, snails, more importantly, the first arthropods went ashore to colonize the empty continent of Gondwana. By the end of the Ordovican, Gondwana was at the pole, early North America had collided with Europe. Glaciation of Africa resulted in a drop in sea level
Paleozoic
–
Trilobites
Paleozoic
–
Cephalaspis (a jawless fish)
Paleozoic
–
Eogyrinus (an amphibian) of the Carboniferous
Paleozoic
–
Dimetrodon
4.
Great Britain
–
Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
Great Britain
–
Satellite image of Great Britain in April 2002
Great Britain
–
Prima Europe tabula. A copy of
Ptolemy 's 2nd century map of Roman Britain
Great Britain
–
The
robin is popularly known as "Britain's favourite bird".
Great Britain
–
Heather growing wild in the
Highlands at
Dornoch.
5.
North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
North America
–
Map of North America, from 1621.
North America
–
North America
North America
–
The
El Castillo pyramid, at
Chichén Itzá, Mexico.
North America
–
Benjamin West 's
The Death of General Wolfe (1771) depicting the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
6.
Western Europe
–
Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
Western Europe
–
The Great Schism in
Christianity, the predominant religion in Western Europe at the time.
Western Europe
Western Europe
–
Geopolitical Occident of Europe
7.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
8.
Avalon Peninsula
–
The Avalon Peninsula is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland. The peninsula is home to 262,410 people, about 51% of Newfoundlands population, the peninsula is the location of St. Johns, the provincial capital and largest city. It is connected to the section of the island by the 5 km wide Isthmus of Avalon. The peninsula protrudes into the fishing zones near the Grand Banks. Its four major bays—Trinity Bay, Conception Bay, St. Marys Bay, the Avalon Peninsula is itself pinched into peninsulas by St. Marys Bay and Conception Bay. St. Johns is located in the northeast of the peninsula, the Avalon Peninsula is a noted region for Precambrian fossils, and many Lagerstätten of the diverse Ediacaran biota are found on the peninsula. Mistaken Point is the location of the first documented Ediacaran. The peninsula gives its name to the ancient micro-continent Avalonia of which it was part, explorer John Cabot led an unsuccessful expedition from England to try and reach the Banda Islands in The Orient, supposedly ended up off what is now Bonavista. The first permanent English settlement was established at Cupers Cove in 1610, sir George Calvert was later given a large land holding on the peninsula. The initial colony of Ferryland grew to a population of 100, Calvert wished to make the colony a refuge for Roman Catholics facing persecution in England. In 1625 Calvert was made the first Lord Baltimore, in 1696, during King Williams War, the French destroyed many English villages in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign. During Queen Annes War, Rear Admiral John Leake of the Royal Navy led an expedition aimed at capturing French ships around the Peninsula, during this same conflict, the French attacked the fortified English port of St. Johns, but were defeated. They later returned and captured the town, burning it to the ground, later, during King Georges War, a single British Man-of-war, HMS Kinsale, cruised along the coast, attacking and capturing French ships. On June 8th,1755, three British and three French Men-of- War met off Cape Race on the Peninsula and engaged each other in battle and this battle was one of a series that ignited the French and Indian War in North America. The Peninsula played a role in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, in which it served as a training ground for Royal Navy sailors. Avalon Explosion British colonization of the Americas New Cambriol Snows Pond Heritage of Newfoundland - Colony of Avalon
Avalon Peninsula
–
The coast of the Avalon Peninsula, in the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador
Avalon Peninsula
–
Avalon Peninsula
Avalon Peninsula
–
Quidi Vidi, near St. John's, Newfoundland
9.
Newfoundland (island)
–
Newfoundland is a large Canadian island off the east coast of the North American mainland, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the land area. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and it blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the worlds largest estuary. Newfoundlands nearest neighbour is the French overseas community of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, with an area of 108,860 square kilometres, Newfoundland is the worlds 16th-largest island, Canadas fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. Johns, is located on the southeastern coast of the island, Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighbouring islands such as New World, Twillingate, Fogo, by that classification, Newfoundland and its associated small islands have a total area of 111,390 square kilometres. Additionally 6. 1% claimed at least one parent of French ancestry, the islands total population as of the 2006 census was 479,105. Long settled by peoples of the Dorset culture, the island was visited by the Icelandic Viking Leif Eriksson in the 11th century. The next European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese, Basque, Spanish, French, the island was visited by the Genoese navigator John Cabot, working under contract to King Henry VII of England on his expedition from Bristol in 1497. In 1501, Portuguese explorers Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in a attempt to find the Northwest Passage. Newfoundland is considered Britains oldest colony, at the time of English settlement, the Beothuk inhabited the island. While there is evidence of ancient indigenous peoples on the island. LAnse aux Meadows was a Norse settlement near the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, the site is considered the only undisputed evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds, if the Norse-Inuit contact on Greenland is not counted. There is a second suspected Norse site in Point Rosee, the island is a likely location of Vinland, mentioned in the Viking Chronicles, although this has been disputed. The indigenous people on the island at the time of European settlement were the Beothuk, later immigrants developed a variety of dialects associated with settlement on the island, Newfoundland English, Newfoundland French. In the 19th century, it also had a dialect of Irish known as Newfoundland Irish, Scottish Gaelic was spoken on the island during the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the Codroy Valley area, chiefly by settlers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The Gaelic names reflected the association with fishing, in Scottish Gaelic, it was called Eilean a Trosg, or literally, similarly, the Irish Gaelic name Talamh an Éisc means Land of the Fish. The first inhabitants of Newfoundland were the Paleo-Eskimo, who have no link to other groups in Newfoundland history
Newfoundland (island)
–
The
Humber River on the Newfoundland island on an October 2007 autumn day
Newfoundland (island)
–
Newfoundland (island)
Newfoundland (island)
–
Plaque commemorating Gilbert's founding of the British Empire
Newfoundland (island)
–
Cabot Tower located in
St John's
10.
Volcanic arc
–
A volcanic arc is a chain of volcanoes formed above a subducting plate, positioned in an arc shape as seen from above. Offshore volcanoes form islands, resulting in an island arc. Generally, volcanic arcs result from the subduction of a tectonic plate under another tectonic plate. The oceanic plate is saturated with water, and volatiles such as water drastically lower the point of the mantle. As the oceanic plate is subducted, it is subjected to greater and greater pressures with increasing depth and this pressure squeezes water out of the plate and introduces it to the mantle. Here the mantle melts and forms magma at depth under the overriding plate, the magma ascends to form an arc of volcanoes parallel to the subduction zone. The Hawaiian Islands form a typical hotspot chain, the islands to the northwest are smaller and more lush than the recently created Hawaii island itself. Hotspot volcanoes are known as intra-plate volcanoes, and the islands they create are known as Volcanic Ocean Islands. Volcanic arcs do not generally such a simple age-pattern. There are two types of volcanic arcs, oceanic arcs form when oceanic crust subducts beneath other oceanic crust on an adjacent plate, continental arcs form when oceanic crust subducts beneath continental crust on an adjacent plate, creating an arc-shaped mountain belt. In some situations, a subduction zone may show both aspects along its length, as part of a plate subducts beneath a continent and part beneath adjacent oceanic crust. Volcanoes are present in almost any mountain belt, but this does not make it a volcanic arc, often there are isolated, but impressively huge volcanoes in a mountain belt. For instance, Vesuvius and the Etna volcanoes in Italy are part of separate, the active front of a volcanic arc is the belt where volcanism develops at a given time. Active fronts may move over time, changing their distance from the trench as well as their width. This loss of water is due to the destabilization of the mineral chlorite at approximately 40–60 km depth. On the subducting side of the arc is a deep and narrow oceanic trench. This trench is created by the pull of the relatively dense subducting plate pulling the leading edge of the plate downward. Multiple earthquakes occur along this boundary with the seismic hypocenters located at increasing depth under the island arc
Volcanic arc
–
Mariana Islands, an oceanic island arc
Volcanic arc
–
The Aleutian Arc, with both oceanic and continental parts.
Volcanic arc
–
Landforms
11.
Gondwana
–
In paleogeography, Gondwana, also Gondwanaland, is the name given to an ancient supercontinent. It is believed to have sutured about 600 to 530 million years ago, Gondwana formed prior to Pangaea, and later became part of it. Around 335 to 250 million years ago Gondwana and Laurasia joined together to form the supercontinent Pangaea, Gondwana then separated from Laurasia in the breakup of Pangaea, drifting farther south after the split. Gondwana itself then also broke apart, the continent of Gondwana was named by Austrian scientist Eduard Suess, after the Gondwana region of central northern India which is derived from Sanskrit for forest of the Gonds. The name had previously used in a geological context, first by H. B. From which the Gondwana sedimentary sequences are also described, for example, the plant family Proteaceae, known only from southern South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, is considered to have a Gondwanan distribution. This pattern is considered to indicate an archaic, or relict. The assembly of Gondwana was a protracted process, several orogenies led to its final amalgamation 550 to 500 million years ago at the end of the Ediacaran, and into the Cambrian. These include the Brasiliano Orogeny, the East African Orogeny, the Malagasy Orogeny, the final stages of Gondwanan assembly overlapped with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean between Laurentia and western Gondwana. During this interval, the Cambrian explosion occurred and this is the Famatinian block and it formerly continued the line of the Appalachians southwards. One of the sites of Gondwanan amalgamation was the East African Orogeny. The East African Orogeny at about 650–630 Mya affected a part of Arabia, north-eastern Africa, East Africa. Collins and Windley propose that in this orogeny, Azania collided with the Congo–Tanzania–Bangweulu Block, the later Malagasy orogeny at about 550–515 Mya affected Madagascar, eastern East Africa and southern India. In it, Neoproterozoic India collided with the already combined Azania and Congo–Tanzania–Bangweulu Block, at the same time, in the Kunga Orogeny Neoproterozoic India collided with the Australia/Mawson continent. Other large continental masses, including the core cratons of North America, Europe, when Pangaea broke up, two large masses, Gondwana and Laurasia, were formed. During the late Paleozoic, Gondwana extended from a point at or near the South Pole to near the Equator, across much of Gondwana, the climate was mild. During the Mesozoic, the world was on average warmer than it is today. Gondwana was then host to a variety of flora and fauna for many millions of years
Gondwana
–
Reconstruction showing final stages of assembly of Gondwana, 550 Mya
Gondwana
–
Map of
Pangaea with Laurasia and Gondwana. 200 mya
Gondwana
–
The
Nothofagus plant genus illustrates Gondwanan distribution, having descended from the supercontinent and existing in present-day Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the
Southern Cone. Fossils have also recently been found in Antarctica.
12.
Rift
–
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the Earths crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben with normal faulting, where rifts remain above sea level they form a rift valley, which may be filled by water forming a rift lake. The axis of the area may contain volcanic rocks, and active volcanism is a part of many. Major rifts occur along the axis of most mid-ocean ridges. Failed rifts are the result of rifting that failed to continue to the point of break-up. Typically the transition from rifting to spreading develops at a junction where three converging rifts meet over a hotspot. Two of these evolve to the point of spreading, while the third ultimately fails. Most rifts consist of a series of segments that together form the linear zone characteristic of rifts. The individual rift segments have a dominantly half-graben geometry, controlled by a single basin-bounding fault, segment lengths vary between rifts, depending on the elastic thickness of the lithosphere. Areas of thick colder lithosphere, such as the Baikal Rift have segment lengths in excess of 80 km, while in areas of warmer thin lithosphere, segment lengths may be less than 30 km. Along the axis of the rift the position, and in cases the polarity. Segment boundaries often have a complex structure and generally cross the rift axis at a high angle. These segment boundary zones accommodate the differences in fault displacement between the segments and are known as accommodation zones. Accommodation zones may be located where older crustal structures intersect the rift axis, in the Gulf of Suez rift, the Zaafarana accommodation zone is located where a shear zone in the Arabian-Nubian Shield meets the rift. At the onset of rifting, the part of the lithosphere starts to extend on a series of initially unconnected normal faults. In subaerial rifts, drainage at this stage is generally internal, as the rift evolves, some of the individual fault segments grow, eventually becoming linked together to form the larger bounding faults. Subsequent extension becomes concentrated on these faults, the longer faults and wider fault spacing leads to more continuous areas of fault-related subsidence along the rift axis. Significant uplift of the rift shoulders develops at this stage, strongly influencing drainage, during rifting, as the crust is thinned, the Earths surface subsides and the Moho becomes correspondingly raised
Rift
–
Block view of a rift formed of three segments, showing the location of the accommodation zones between them at changes in fault location or polarity (dip direction)
13.
Iapetus Ocean
–
The Iapetus Ocean was an ocean that existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale. The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia. The ocean disappeared with the Acadian, Caledonian and Taconic orogenies, the southern Iapetus Ocean has been proposed to have closed with the Famatinian and Taconic orogenies, meaning a collision between Western Gondwana and Laurentia. The Iapetus Ocean was therefore named for the titan Iapetus, who in Greek mythology was the father of Atlas, after whom the Atlantic Ocean was named. Geologists of the early 20th century presumed that a large trough, with the development of plate tectonics in the 1960s, geologists such as Arthur Holmes and John Tuzo Wilson concluded that the Atlantic Ocean must have had a precursor before the time of Pangaea. Wilson also noticed that the Atlantic had opened at roughly the place where its precursor ocean had closed. This led him to his Wilson cycle hypothesis, in many spots in Scandinavia basaltic dikes are found with ages between 670 and 650 million years. These are interpreted as evidence that by that time, rifting had started that would form the Iapetus Ocean, in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Long Range dikes are also thought to have formed during the formation of the Iapetus Ocean. The southern Iapetus Ocean opened between Laurentia and southwestern Gondwana about 550 Ma in the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition, at the time it did so the Adamastor Ocean further east closed. However, the formation of both oceans seems unrelated, southwest of the Iapetus, a volcanic island arc evolved from the early Cambrian onward. This volcanic arc was formed above a subduction zone where the lithosphere of the Iapetus Ocean subducted southward under other oceanic lithosphere. From Cambrian times the western Iapetus Ocean began to grow progressively narrower due to this subduction, the same happened further north and east, where Avalonia and Baltica began to move towards Laurentia from the Ordovician onward. In the west, the Iapetus Ocean closed with the Taconic orogeny, some authors consider the oceanic basin south of the island arc also a part of the Iapetus, this branch closed during the later Acadian orogeny, when Avalonia collided with Laurentia. It has been suggested that the southern Iapetus Ocean closed during a collision between Laurentia and Western Gondwana. If factual the Taconic orogen would be the continuation of the Famatinian orogen exposed in Argentina. Avalonia Baltica Geologic timescale Khanty Ocean London-Brabant Massif Plate tectonics Southern uplands of Scotland Cocks, L. R. N. Fortey, Biogeography of Ordovician and Silurian faunas. In McKerrow, W. S. Scotese, C. F. Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography, dalziel, I. W. Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic geography and tectonics, Review, hypothesis, environmental speculation. 1972, The Arctic Caledonides and earlier oceans, Geological Magazine 109,2003, The making and unmaking of a supercontinent, Rodinia revisited, Tectonophysics 375, pp. 261–288
Iapetus Ocean
–
The Iapetus Ocean and surrounding continents
Iapetus Ocean
–
Geological fault at
Niarbyl. The narrow white diagonal line near centre of picture is the only known remaining visible indication of the Iapetus Ocean
14.
Baltica
–
Baltica was a late-Proterozoic, early-Palaeozoic continent that now includes the East European craton of northwestern Eurasia. Baltica was created as an entity not earlier than 1.8 billion years ago, before this time, the three segments/continents that now compose the East European craton were in different places on the globe. Baltica existed on a plate called the Baltic Plate. ~1.82 billion years ago, Baltica was part of the major supercontinent Columbia, ~1.5 billion years ago, Baltica along with Arctica and East Antarctica were part of the minor supercontinent Nena. ~1.07 billion years ago, Baltica was part of the major supercontinent Rodinia, ~750 million years ago, Baltica was part of the minor supercontinent Protolaurasia. ~600 million years ago, Baltica was part of the major supercontinent Pannotia, ~Cambrian, Baltica was an independent continent. ~Late Ordovician, Baltica collided with Avalonia ~Devonian, Baltica collided against Laurentia, ~Permian, all major continents collided against each other to form the major supercontinent Pangaea. ~Jurassic, Pangaea rifted into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana. Baltica was part of the minor supercontinent Laurasia, ~Cretaceous, Baltica was part of the minor supercontinent Eurasia. ~Present, Baltica is part of the minor supercontinent Afro-Eurasia. Around 250 million years from now, all continents may crash together, Baltica would be part of Pangaea Proxima. Around 450-600 Ma from now, Pangea Proxima will eventually rift apart
Baltica
–
Baltica in 550
mya (green)
15.
Pangea
–
Pangaea or Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, in contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, much of Pangaea was in the southern hemisphere and surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa. Pangaea was the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists, the name Pangaea/Pangea is derived from Ancient Greek pan and Gaia. The name Pangea occurs in the 1920 edition of Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, but only once, the forming of supercontinents and their breaking up appears to have been cyclical through Earths history. There may have many others before Pangaea. When Rodinia broke up, it split into three pieces, the supercontinent of Proto-Laurasia, the supercontinent of Proto-Gondwana, and the smaller Congo craton, Proto-Laurasia and Proto-Gondwana were separated by the Proto-Tethys Ocean. Next Proto-Laurasia itself split apart to form the continents of Laurentia, Siberia, Baltica moved to the east of Laurentia, and Siberia moved northeast of Laurentia. The splitting also created two new oceans, the Iapetus Ocean and Paleoasian Ocean, most of the above masses coalesced again to form the relatively short-lived supercontinent of Pannotia. This supercontinent included large amounts of land near the poles and, near the equator, Pannotia lasted until 540 Ma, near the beginning of the Cambrian period and then broke up, giving rise to the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, and the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Baltica, Laurentia, and Avalonia all came together by the end of the Ordovician to form a supercontinent called Euramerica or Laurussia. The collision also resulted in the formation of the northern Appalachians, Siberia sat near Euramerica, with the Khanty Ocean between the two continents. While all this was happening, Gondwana drifted slowly towards the South Pole and this was the first step of the formation of Pangaea. The second step in the formation of Pangaea was the collision of Gondwana with Euramerica, by Silurian time,440 Ma, Baltica had already collided with Laurentia, forming Euramerica. Avalonia had not yet collided with Laurentia, but as Avalonia inched towards Laurentia, meanwhile, southern Europe broke off from Gondwana and began to move towards Euramerica across the newly formed Rheic Ocean. It collided with southern Baltica in the Devonian, though this microcontinent was an underwater plate, the Iapetus Oceans sister ocean, the Khanty Ocean, shrank as an island arc from Siberia collided with eastern Baltica. Behind this island arc was a new ocean, the Ural Ocean, by late Silurian time, North and South China split from Gondwana and started to head northward, shrinking the Proto-Tethys Ocean in their path and opening the new Paleo-Tethys Ocean to their south. In the Devonian Period, Gondwana itself headed towards Euramerica, causing the Rheic Ocean to shrink, South America moved northward to southern Euramerica, while the eastern portion of Gondwana headed toward the South Pole from the equator. North and South China were on independent continents, the Kazakhstania microcontinent had collided with Siberia
Pangea
–
Appalachian orogeny
Pangea
–
Map of Pangaea with modern continental outlines.
Pangea
–
Example of an Ammonite
16.
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
17.
Subduction zone
–
Subduction is a geological process that takes place at convergent boundaries of tectonic plates where one plate moves under another and is forced or sinks due to gravity into the mantle. Regions where this occurs are known as subduction zones. Rates of subduction are typically in centimeters per year, with the rate of convergence being approximately two to eight centimeters per year along most plate boundaries. Plates include both oceanic crust and continental crust, stable subduction zones involve the oceanic lithosphere of one plate sliding beneath the continental or oceanic lithosphere of another plate due to the higher density of the oceanic lithosphere. That is, the lithosphere is always oceanic while the overriding lithosphere may or may not be oceanic. Subduction zones are sites that have a rate of volcanism, earthquakes. Subduction zones are sites of convective downwelling of Earths lithosphere, subduction zones exist at convergent plate boundaries where one plate of oceanic lithosphere converges with another plate. The descending slab, the plate, is over-ridden by the leading edge of the other plate. The slab sinks at an angle of approximately twenty-five to forty-five degrees to Earths surface and this sinking is driven by the temperature difference between the subducting oceanic lithosphere and the surrounding mantle asthenosphere, as the colder oceanic lithosphere is, on average, denser. At a depth of approximately 80–120 kilometers, the basalt of the oceanic crust is converted to a rock called eclogite. At that point, the density of the oceanic crust increases and provides additional negative buoyancy and it is at subduction zones that Earths lithosphere, oceanic crust, sedimentary layers and some trapped water are recycled into the deep mantle. Earth is so far the only planet where subduction is known to occur, subduction is the driving force behind plate tectonics, and without it, plate tectonics could not occur. Subduction zones dive down into the mantle beneath 55,000 kilometers of convergent plate margins, subduction zones burrow deeply but are imperfectly camouflaged, and geophysics and geochemistry can be used to study them. Not surprisingly, the shallowest portions of subduction zones are known best, subduction zones are strongly asymmetric for the first several hundred kilometers of their descent. They start to go down at oceanic trenches and their descents are marked by inclined zones of earthquakes that dip away from the trench beneath the volcanoes and extend down to the 660-kilometer discontinuity. Subduction zones are defined by the array of earthquakes known as the Wadati–Benioff zone after the two scientists who first identified this distinctive aspect. Subduction zone earthquakes occur at greater depths than elsewhere on Earth, such deep earthquakes may be driven by deep phase transformations, thermal runaway, the subducting basalt and sediment are normally rich in hydrous minerals and clays. Additionally, large quantities of water are introduced into cracks and fractures created as the slab bends downward
Subduction zone
Subduction zone
–
Geometry of a subduction zone - insets to show
accretionary prism and partial melting of hydrated
asthenosphere
18.
Cambrian
–
The Cambrian Period was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 55.6 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 541 million years ago to the beginning of the Ordovician Period 485.4 mya and its subdivisions, and its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latinised form of Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales, as a result, our understanding of the Cambrian biology surpasses that of some later periods. The rapid diversification of lifeforms in the Cambrian, known as the Cambrian explosion, most of the continents were probably dry and rocky due to a lack of vegetation. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia, the seas were relatively warm, and polar ice was absent for much of the period. The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee uses a barred capital C ⟨Є⟩ character similar to the capital letter Ukrainian Ye ⟨Є⟩ to represent the Cambrian Period, the proper Unicode character is U+A792 Ꞓ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH BAR. Despite the long recognition of its distinction from younger Ordovician Period rocks and older Supereon Precambrian rocks, the base of the Cambrian lies atop a complex assemblage of trace fossils known as the Treptichnus pedum assemblage. Pedum in Namibia, Spain and Newfoundland, and possibly, in the western USA, the stratigraphic range of T. pedum overlaps the range of the Ediacaran fossils in Namibia, and probably in Spain. The Cambrian Period followed the Ediacaran Period and was followed by the Ordovician Period, the Cambrian is divided into four epochs and ten ages. Currently only two series and five stages are named and have a GSSP, because the international stratigraphic subdivision is not yet complete, many local subdivisions are still widely used. In some of these subdivisions the Cambrian is divided into three epochs with locally differing names – the Early Cambrian, Middle Cambrian and Furongian, rocks of these epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle, or Upper Cambrian. Trilobite zones allow biostratigraphic correlation in the Cambrian, each of the local epochs is divided into several stages. The International Commission on Stratigraphy list the Cambrian period as beginning at 541 million years ago, the lower boundary of the Cambrian was originally held to represent the first appearance of complex life, represented by trilobites. The recognition of small shelly fossils before the first trilobites, and Ediacara biota substantially earlier and this formal designation allowed radiometric dates to be obtained from samples across the globe that corresponded to the base of the Cambrian. Early dates of 570 million years ago quickly gained favour, though the used to obtain this number are now considered to be unsuitable. A more precise date using modern radiometric dating yield a date of 541 ±0.3 million years ago, most continental land was clustered in the Southern Hemisphere at this time, but was drifting north. Large, high-velocity rotational movement of Gondwana appears to have occurred in the Early Cambrian, the sea levels fluctuated somewhat, suggesting there were ice ages, associated with pulses of expansion and contraction of a south polar ice cap. In Baltoscandia a Lower Cambrian transgression transformed large swathes of the Sub-Cambrian peneplain into a epicontinental sea, the Earth was generally cold during the early Cambrian, probably due to the ancient continent of Gondwana covering the South Pole and cutting off polar ocean currents
Cambrian
–
Archeocyathids from the
Poleta formation in the
Death Valley area
Cambrian
–
Stromatolites of the Pika Formation (Middle Cambrian) near Helen Lake, Banff National Park, Canada
Cambrian
–
Trilobites were very common during this time
Cambrian
–
Anomalocaris was an early marine predator, among the various
arthropods of the time.
19.
Supercontinent
–
In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earths continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, the definition of a supercontinent can be ambiguous, Many earth scientists, such as P. F. Hoffman, use the term supercontinent to mean a clustering of all continents. This definition leaves room for interpretation when labeling a continental body and is easier to apply to Precambrian times, the landmass of Pangaea is the collective name describing all of these continental masses when they were most recently in proximity to one another. This would classify Pangaea as a supercontinent, according to the definition by Rogers and Santosh, a supercontinent does not exist today. Supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past, the positions of continents have been accurately determined back to the early Jurassic. However, beyond 200 Ma, continental positions are less certain. The following table displays historical supercontinents, using a general definition, there are two contrasting models for supercontinent evolution through geological time. The first model theorizes that at least two separate supercontinents existed comprising Vaalbara and Kenorland, the Neoarchean supercontinent consisted of Superia and Sclavia. These parts of Neoarchean age broke off at ~2300 and 2090 Ma, Nuna continued to develop during the Mesoproterozoic, primarily by lateral accretion of juvenile arcs, and in ~1000 Ma Nuna collided with other land masses, forming Rodinia. Between ~800 and 700 Ma Rodinia broke apart, however, before completely breaking up, some fragments of Rodinia had already come together to form Gondwana by ~530 Ma. Pangaea formed by ~300 Ma through the collision of Gondwana, Laurentia, Baltica, during the intervening periods, the poles conform to a unified apparent polar wander path. The explanation for the duration of the Protopangea-Paleopangea supercontinent appears to be that Lid Tectonics prevailed during Precambrian times. Plate Tectonics as seen on the contemporary Earth became dominant only during the part of geological times. The Phanerozoic supercontinent Pangaea began to break up 180 Ma and is doing so today. Because Pangaea is the most recent of Earths supercontinents, it is the most well known, contributing to Pangaeas popularity in the classroom is the fact that its reconstruction is almost as simple as fitting the present continents bordering the Atlantic-type oceans like puzzle pieces. A supercontinent cycle is the break-up of one supercontinent and the development of another, supercontinent cycles are not the same as the Wilson cycle, which is the opening and closing of an individual oceanic basin. The Wilson cycle rarely synchronizes with the timing of a supercontinent cycle, however, supercontinent cycles and Wilson cycles were both involved in the creation of Pangaea and Rodinia
Supercontinent
–
The
Eurasian landmass would not be considered a supercontinent according to P.F. Hoffman (1999).
Supercontinent
–
As the slab is subducted into the mantle, the more dense material will break off and sink to the lower mantle creating a discontinuity elsewhere known as a slab avalanche.
Supercontinent
–
The effects of mantle plumes possibly caused by slab avalanches elsewhere in the lower mantle on the breakup and assembly of supercontinents.
Supercontinent
–
U–Pb ages of 5,246 concordant detrital zircons from 40 of Earth's major rivers
20.
Pannotia
–
Pannotia formed when Laurentia was located adjacent to the two major South American cratons, Amazonia and Río de la Plata. The opening of the Iapetus Ocean separated Laurentia from Baltica, Amazonia, piper 1976 was probably the first to propose a Proterozoic supercontinent preceding Pangaea, today known as Rodinia. The reconstruction of Bond et al. is virtually identical to that of Dalziel 1997, another term for the supercontinent that is thought to have existed at the end of Neoproterozoic time is Greater Gondwanaland, suggested by Stern 1994. This term recognizes that the supercontinent of Gondwana, which formed at the end of the Neoproterozoic, was part of the much larger end-Neoproterozoic supercontinent. Powell, however, objected to this renaming and instead proposed Stumps term for the latter supercontinent, the formation of Pannotia began during the Pan-African orogeny when the Congo continent got caught between the northern and southern halves of the previous supercontinent Rodinia some 750 Ma. The peak in this mountain building event was around 640–610 Ma, the formation of Pannotia was the result of Rodinia turning itself inside out. When Pannotia had formed Africa was located at the centre surrounded by the rest of Gondwana, South America, Arabia, Madagascar, India, Antarctica, Laurentia, who escaped out of Rodinia, Baltica, and Siberia kept the relative positions they had in Rodinia. The Cathaysian and Cimmerian terranes were located along the margins of east Gondwana. The Avalonian-Cadomian terranes were located along the northern margins of western Gondwana. This orogeny probably extended north into the Uralian margin of Baltica, Pannotia formed by subduction of exterior oceans over a geoid low, whereas Pangaea formed by subduction of interior oceans over a geoid high perhaps caused by superplumes and slab avalanche events. One of the major of these orogenies was the collision between East and West Gondwana or the East African Orogeny, 600-500 Ma two Brazilian interior orogenies got highly deformed and metamorphosed between a series of colliding cratons, Amazonia, West Africa-São Luís, and São Francisco-Congo-Kasai. The material that was accreted included 950-850 Ma mafic meta-igneous complexes, the break-up of Pannotia was accompanied by sea level rise, dramatic changes in climate and ocean water chemistry, and rapid metazoan diversification. Bond, Nickeson & Kominz 1984 found Neoproterozoic passive margin sequences worldwide — the first indication of a Late Neoproterozoic supercontinent, the Iapetus Ocean started to open while Pannotia was being assembled,200 m. y. after the break-up of Rodinia. Plate tectonics Supercontinent cycle Pan-African orogeny An image showing Pannotia according to Christopher Scotese, stampfli, G. M. von Raumer, J. F. Borel, G. D. Paleozoic evolution of pre-Variscan terranes, from Gondwana to the Variscan collision
Pannotia
–
Pannotia (550 Ma).
21.
Ordovician
–
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.2 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 485.4 million years ago to the start of the Silurian Period 443.8 Mya. Lapworth recognized that the fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian periods. It received international sanction in 1960, when it was adopted as a period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress. Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it did in the earlier Cambrian period, invertebrates, namely molluscs and arthropods, dominated the oceans. The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event considerably increased the diversity of life, fish, the worlds first true vertebrates, continued to evolve, and those with jaws may have first appeared late in the period. Life had yet to diversify on land, about 100 times as many meteorites struck the Earth during the Ordovician compared with today. The Ordovician Period began with a major extinction called the Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event and it lasted for about 42 million years and ended with the Ordovician–Silurian extinction event, about 443.8 Mya which wiped out 60% of marine genera. The dates given are recent radiometric dates and vary slightly from those found in other sources and this second period of the Paleozoic era created abundant fossils that became major petroleum and gas reservoirs. The boundary chosen for the beginning of both the Ordovician Period and the Tremadocian stage is highly significant and it correlates well with the occurrence of widespread graptolite, conodont, and trilobite species. The base of the Tremadocian allows scientists to relate these species not only to each other and this makes it easier to place many more species in time relative to the beginning of the Ordovician Period. A number of terms have been used to subdivide the Ordovician Period. In 2008, the ICS erected an international system of subdivisions. There exist Baltoscandic, British, Siberian, North American, Australian, the Ordovician Period in Britain was traditionally broken into Early, Middle and Late epochs. The corresponding rocks of the Ordovician System are referred to as coming from the Lower, Middle, the Floian corresponds to the lower Arenig, the Arenig continues until the early Darriwilian, subsuming the Dapingian. The Llanvirn occupies the rest of the Darriwilian, and terminates with it at the base of the Late Ordovician. The Sandbian represents the first half of the Caradoc, the Caradoc ends in the mid-Katian, during the Ordovician, the southern continents were collected into Gondwana. Gondwana started the period in equatorial latitudes and, as the period progressed, drifted toward the South Pole, the small continent Avalonia separated from Gondwana and began to move north towards Baltica and Laurentia, opening the Rheic Ocean between Gondwana and Avalonia
Ordovician
–
External mold of Ordovician
bivalve showing that the original
aragonite shell dissolved on the sea floor, leaving a cemented mold for biological encrustation (
Waynesville Formation of Franklin County, Indiana).
Ordovician
–
A
diorama depicting Ordovician flora and fauna.
Ordovician
–
Nautiloids like
Orthoceras were among the largest predators in the Ordovician.
Ordovician
–
Fossiliferous limestone slab from the Liberty Formation (Upper Ordovician) of Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, Ohio.
22.
Silurian
–
The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago, to the beginning of the Devonian Period,419.2 Mya. As with other periods, the rock beds that define the periods start and end are well identified. The base of the Silurian is set at a major Ordovician-Silurian extinction event when 60% of marine species were wiped out, a significant evolutionary milestone during the Silurian was the diversification of jawed and bony fish. However, terrestrial life would not greatly diversify and affect the landscape until the Devonian, the Silurian system was first identified by British geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, who was examining fossil-bearing sedimentary rock strata in south Wales in the early 1830s. He named the sequences for a Celtic tribe of Wales, the Silures, inspired by his friend Adam Sedgwick and this naming does not indicate any correlation between the occurrence of the Silurian rocks and the land inhabited by the Silures. As it was first identified, the Silurian series when traced farther afield quickly came to overlap Sedgwicks Cambrian sequence, however, charles Lapworth resolved the conflict by defining a new Ordovician system including the contested beds. An early alternative name for the Silurian was Gotlandian after the strata of the Baltic island of Gotland, the French geologist Joachim Barrande, building on Murchisons work, used the term Silurian in a more comprehensive sense than was justified by subsequent knowledge. He divided the Silurian rocks of Bohemia into eight stages and his interpretation was questioned in 1854 by Edward Forbes, and the later stages of Barrande, F, G and H, have since been shown to be Devonian. Despite these modifications in the groupings of the strata, it is recognized that Barrande established Bohemia as a classic ground for the study of the earliest fossils. The epoch is named for the town of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, the Wenlock, which lasted from 433.4 ±1.5 to 427.4 ±2.8 mya, is subdivided into the Sheinwoodian and Homerian ages. It is named after Wenlock Edge in Shropshire, England, during the Wenlock, the oldest known tracheophytes of the genus Cooksonia, appear. The first terrestrial animals also appear in the Wenlock, represented by air-breathing millipedes from Scotland. The Ludlow, lasting from 427.4 ±1.5 to 423 ±2.8 mya, comprises the Gorstian stage, lasting until 425.6 million years ago, and it is named for the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. The Pridoli, lasting from 423 ±1.5 to 419.2 ±2.8 mya, is the final and it is named after one locality at the Homolka a Přídolí nature reserve near the Prague suburb Slivenec in the Czech Republic. Přídolí is the old name of a field area. The high sea levels of the Silurian and the flat land resulted in a number of island chains. The southern continents remained united during this period, the melting of icecaps and glaciers contributed to a rise in sea level, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an unconformity. The continents of Avalonia, Baltica, and Laurentia drifted together near the equator and this event is the Caledonian orogeny, a spate of mountain building that stretched from New York State through conjoined Europe and Greenland to Norway
Silurian
–
Ordovician -Silurian boundary on
Hovedøya,
Norway, showing gray Ordovician
sandstone and brown Silurian
mudstone. The layers have been overturned by the
Caledonian orogeny.
Silurian
–
Marine extinction intensity during the
Phanerozoic
Silurian
–
Silurian sea bed fossils collected from Wren's Nest Nature Reserve, Dudley UK
Silurian
–
Crinoid fragments in a Silurian (Pridoli) limestone (
Saaremaa, Estonia)
23.
Devonian
–
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian,419.2 million years ago, to the beginning of the Carboniferous,358.9 Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied, the first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian. Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive forests which covered the continents, by the middle of the Devonian, several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared. Various terrestrial arthropods also became well-established, Fish reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fish. The first ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish appeared, while the placodermi began dominating almost every aquatic environment. The ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates began adapting to walking on land, as their strong pectoral, in the oceans, primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. The first ammonites, species of molluscs, appeared, trilobites, the mollusk-like brachiopods and the great coral reefs, were still common. The Late Devonian extinction which started about 375 million years ago severely affected marine life, killing off all placodermi, and all trilobites, save for a few species of the order Proetida. The palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent of Gondwana to the south, the continent of Siberia to the north, while the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian 419.2 Mya, another common term is Age of the Fishes, referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian and Farlovian stages, in the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common. The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions, the rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System. Early Devonian The Early Devonian lasted from 419.2 ±2.8 to 393.3 ±2.5 and began with the Lochkovian stage, which lasted until the Pragian. It spanned from 410.8 ±2.8 to 407.6 ±2.5, and was followed by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began,393. 3±2.7 million years ago. Middle Devonian The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions, first the Eifelian, which gave way to the Givetian 387. 7±2.7 million years ago. Late Devonian Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian,382.7 ±2.8 to 372.2 ±2.5, during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision. This lasted until the end of the Devonian,358. 9±2.5 million years ago, the Devonian was a relatively warm period, and probably lacked any glaciers
Devonian
–
The rocks of Lummaton Quarry in
Torquay in Devon played an early role in defining the Devonian period.
Devonian
–
Dunkleosteus, one of the largest armoured fish to ever roam the planet, lived during the late Devonian
Devonian
–
Enrolled phacopid
trilobite from the Devonian of Ohio
Devonian
–
The common tabulate coral
Aulopora from the Middle Devonian of Ohio – view of colony origin encrusting a
brachiopod valve
24.
Euramerica
–
Euramerica was a minor supercontinent created in the Devonian as the result of a collision between the Laurentian, Baltica, and Avalonia cratons,433 million years ago. In the Late Carboniferous, tropical rainforests lay over the equator of Euramerica, a major, abrupt change in vegetation occurred when the climate aridified. The forest fragmented and the lycopsids which dominated these wetlands thinned out, there was also a great loss of amphibian diversity and simultaneously the drier climate spurred the diversification of reptiles. Euramerica became a part of the major supercontinent Pangaea in the Permian, in the Jurassic, when Pangaea rifted into two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia, Euramerica was a part of Laurasia. In the Cretaceous, Laurasia split into the continents of North America, the Laurentian craton became a part of North America while Baltica became a part of Eurasia, and Avalonia was split between the two. Permian, Euramerica became a part of the supercontinent Pangaea, Jurassic, Pangaea rifted into Gondwana and Laurasia. Cretaceous, Laurasia split into the continents of North America and Eurasia, continental drift Eurasia Main Uralian Fault Palaeos Earth, Geography, Euramerica Paleogeographic globe of the Devonian Earth
Euramerica
–
Euramerica in the Devonian
25.
Caledonian orogeny
–
The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain building era recorded in the northern parts of Ireland and Britain, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that occurred from the Ordovician to Early Devonian and it was caused by the closure of the Iapetus Ocean when the continents and terranes of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia collided. The Caledonian orogeny is named for Caledonia, the Latin name for Scotland, the name was first used in 1885 by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess for an episode of mountain building in northern Europe that predated the Devonian period. Geologists like Émile Haug and Hans Stille saw the Caledonian orogeny as one of several phases of mountain building that had occurred during Earths history. Current understanding has it that the Caledonian orogeny encompasses a number of phases that can laterally be diachronous. The name Caledonian can therefore not be used for a period of geological time. The Caledonian orogeny was one of several orogenies that would form the supercontinent Pangaea in the Late Paleozoic era. Between 650 and 550 million years ago the smaller continents of Laurentia, Baltica, in the process, the Iapetus Ocean between Gondwana, Baltica and Laurentia closed. In the Early Ordovician period the microcontinent Avalonia began to separate from the margin of Gondwana. Some early phases of deformation and/or metamorphism are recognized in the Scandinavian Caledonides, the first phase that is often included in the Caledonian orogeny is the Finnmarkian phase at 505 million years ago. Another phase was the Jämtlandian phase at 455 million years ago and these phases are explained by the assumption that the western edge of Baltica collided with an island arc or microcontinent. In a similar way, the edge of Laurentia collided with an island arc during the Taconic orogeny. During the Ordovician, the continent of Avalonia moved independently in a northeastern direction towards Baltica. This motion was accommodated by the subduction of the southeastern Iapetus Ocean beneath eastern Avalonia, in the Late Ordovician continental collision started between Avalonia and Baltica. The Tornquist Sea disappeared in the process, the suture is the Tornquist line. The main phase of the Caledonian orogeny is called the Scandian phase in Scandinavia and it was caused by the collision between Laurentia and Baltica. The Iapetus Ocean first closed in the north, then in the south, therefore, the collision between Baltica and Laurentia took place a little earlier than that between Avalonia and Laurentia. Continental collision started in the Mid Silurian and mountain building took place in the Early Devonian, in North America, the collision between Avalonia and Laurentia is called the Acadian orogeny
Caledonian orogeny
–
Location of the different branches of the Caledonian/
Acadian belts at the end of the Caledonian orogeny (Early
Devonian). Present day coastlines are indicated in gray for reference. Later in
geological history, the
Atlantic Ocean opened and the different parts of the orogenic belt moved apart.
26.
Acadian orogeny
–
The Acadian orogeny is a long-lasting mountain building event which began in the Middle Devonian, reaching a climax in the early Late Devonian. It was active for approximately 50 million years, beginning roughly around 375 million years ago, with deformational, plutonic, the Acadian orogeny is the third of the four orogenies that created the Appalachian orogen and subsequent basin. The preceding orogenies consisted of the Potomac and Taconic orogeny, which followed a stage in the Late Neoproterozoic. The Acadian orogeny involved the collision of a series of Avalonian continental fragments with the Laurasian continent, geographically, the Acadian orogen extended from the Canadian Maritime provinces migrating in a southwesterly direction toward Alabama. However, the Northern Appalachian region, from New England northeastern ward into Gaspé region of Canada, was the most greatly affected region by the collision. During the time of the Acadian orogeny, Middle Devonian, the paleolatitude of the Laurentia was in the southern hemisphere near the equator, Laurentia did not change much with respect to paleolatitude during the Devonian. The paleolatitude of Gondwana during the Middle to Late Devonian resided around intermediate latitudes of about 50°S, the collision creating the Acadian orogeny resulted in the closing of the southern Iapetus ocean and the formation of a high mountain belt. After the Acadian collision took place, Gondwana began to retreat from Laurentia with the newly accreted Avalonian terranes left behind. As Gondwana moved away, a new ocean opened up, the Rheic Ocean, during the Middle to Late Devonian, and subsequently its closure would result in the formation of the Alleghanian orogeny. Laurentia is the North American paleocontinent, which includes present day Northwest Ireland, Scotland, Greenland, the North Slope of Alaska. During the Ordovician-Devonian time, Laurentia remained at the same paleolatitude, slightly south of the equator in the southern hemisphere, the basement consisted of Late Precambrian age arc rocks, and is believed to come from the margin of Gondwana, sometime in the Early Ordovician. Avalonia rifted from Gondwana, during the onset of activity in the Ardennes, Wales. It drifted in a direction and probably collided with Baltica in the Late Ordovician. One or more of the Avalonian terranes accreted with the margin of Laurentia. In the central to southern Appalachians, evidence for the Acadian orogeny is poor, the Acadian orogeny experienced at least three major phases of deformation, and in places, unconformities were recognized. These phases were called tectophases, and represented the sequence of collisions that occurred from the Avalonian terranes accreting to Laurentia, as a result of these tectophases, deltas developed on the adjacent parts of the stable craton, eastern margin of Laurentia. These deltas are described as foreland-basin, delta-complex clastic wedges, which are responsible for the volumes of sediment input into the Appalachian basin. As mentioned previously, the Acadian Orogeny formed from the convergence or major transcurrent movement along a large strike-slip fault moving in a southeasterly direction
Acadian orogeny
–
The Appalachian Orogeny, a result of three separate continental collisions. USGS
Acadian orogeny
–
Paleogeographic reconstruction showing the Appalachian Basin area during the
Middle Devonian period.
27.
Permian
–
The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 46.7 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Triassic Period 252.2 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era, the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era, the concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the city of Perm. The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by two known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior, amniotes, who could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. The Permian ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earths history, in which nearly 90% of marine species and it would take well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe. Recovery from the Permian-Triassic extinction event was protracted, on land, the term Permian was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil, the region now lies in the Perm Krai of Russia. This could have in part caused the extinctions of marine species at the end of the period by severely reducing shallow coastal areas preferred by many marine organisms. During the Permian, all the Earths major landmasses were collected into a supercontinent known as Pangaea. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia, a new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmass interiors experience climates with extreme variations of heat and cold, deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea. Such dry conditions favored gymnosperms, plants with seeds enclosed in a cover, over plants such as ferns that disperse spores in a wetter environment. The first modern trees appeared in the Permian, the climate in the Permian was quite varied. At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in an Ice Age, glaciers receded around the mid-Permian period as the climate gradually warmed, drying the continents interiors. In the late Permian period, the drying continued although the temperature cycled between warm and cool cycles, Permian marine deposits are rich in fossil mollusks, echinoderms, and brachiopods. By the close of the Permian, trilobites and a host of other groups became extinct. Terrestrial life in the Permian included diverse plants, fungi, arthropods, the period saw a massive desert covering the interior of Pangaea
Permian
–
Selwyn Rock, South Australia - an exhumed
glacial pavement of Permian age
Permian
–
Geography of the Permian world
Permian
–
Hercosestria cribrosa, a
reef -forming productid brachiopod (Middle Permian, Glass Mountains, Texas).
Permian
–
Edaphosaurus pogonias and
Platyhystrix - Early Permian, North America and Europe
28.
Armorican terrane
–
The main exposures of the Armorican terrane are found throughout Brittany, the Channel Islands, parts of Upper Normandy, forming the Armorican Massif. Other fragments thought to have formed part of the Armorican terrane assemblage include rock units exposed in the Vosges, Black Forest, Bohemian Massif. All of the fragments that make up the Armorican terrane are thought to have formed part of the northern margin of Gondwana. Rifting initiated in the Cambrian to Ordovician although the terrane was still enough to Gondwana to be affected by the Andean-Saharan glaciation during the late Ordovician. Complete separation from Gondwana, across the developing Paleotethys Ocean, is thought to have occurred towards the end of the Silurian, at this time Armorica was separated from Laurussia by the Rheic Ocean. One possible model includes Armorica as part of the Hun superterrane, the Rheic Ocean closed during the Devonian and early Carboniferous, as the oceanic crust was subducted. The Variscan orogeny marks the final closure of the Rheic Ocean as the continental fragments, including Armorica. Evolution of the atlantic and the western Tethys - a visual presentation of a series of paleogeographic-paleotectonic maps
Armorican terrane
–
Geographic regions
Armorican terrane
–
Plate reconstruction during the late
Devonian, showing the location of Armorica (Am) within the proposed Hun superterrane
29.
Iberian plate
–
Nowadays, the Iberian plate is a part of the Eurasian plate. The three plates have never separated substantially from each other since that time, in the Mesozoic, Late Jurassic Africa started moving east, and the Alpine Tethys opened. Subsidence related to this caused deep deposits of sediments on the east, two stages of rifting occurred in the east, one from Later Permian to Triassic, and the second from Late Jurassic to early Cretaceous. On the south side deposits of carbonates and clastic sediments formed a shelf in water during late Triassic and Liassic times. This was rifted in Toarcian times, active rifting was complete by 160 Ma. After this thermal subsidence occurred till the end of Cretaceous, during this time rifting separated North America from Africa forming a transform zone. In the late Triassic and early Jurassic there were two stages of rifting involving extension and subsidence on the margin of Iberia. It also extended the western margin, the Iberian Abyssal Plain, off the west coast of Portugal and Spain, formed 126 Ma. This separated Newfoundlands Grand Banks, with Galicia Bank and Flemish Cap being split at 118 Ma, by Early Cretaceous,110 Ma rifting occurs on west and north west edges. During the time of the supercontinent Pangea, the Iberian plate was joined to Armorica, during the break-up of Pangea, in the early Cretaceous, the Bay of Biscay started opening around 126 Ma and completed by 85 Ma. This created the Biscay Abyssal Plain, and parted the Iberian plate from the Trevelyan Escarpment, during this time Iberia rotated anticlockwise relative to Eurasia. This caused the subduction of the Ligurian Basin onto the eastern side and this formed the Betic nappe stack. After 85 Ma the Atlantic Ocean opening started between Ireland and Greenland and this left the Bay of Biscay as a failed rift. The rotation of the Iberia and its relation to the formation of the Pyrenees has been difficult to decipher with certainty, when motion along this boundary ceased, a boundary linking extension in the Kings Trough to compression along the Pyrenees came into existence. Since the late Oligocene, the Iberian plate has been moving as part of the Eurasian plate, the core of the Iberian Peninsula consists of a Hercynian cratonic block known as the Iberian Massif. On the northeast this is bounded by The Pyrenean fold belt and these twofold chains are part of the Alpine belt. To the west, the peninsula is delimited by the boundary formed by the magma poor opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The Hercynian Foldbelt is mostly buried by Mesozoic and Tertiary cover rocks to the east, but nevertheless outcrops through the Iberian Chain and the Catalan Coastal Ranges
Iberian plate
–
Euramerica (Late
Triassic,
Norian, 220 Ma, in French). Translation:
Laurentia,
Greenland,
Fennoscandian Shield,
Saharan Shield, Iberian plate, Irish plate, Scottish plate,
Massif Central,
Armorican Massif, L' Ardenne, Bohemian terrane,
Tethys Ocean and
Rochechouart crater.
Iberian plate
–
Geographic regions
30.
Variscan orogeny
–
The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny is a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Hercynian, on the hand, derives from the Hercynian Forest. Both words were descriptive terms of strike directions observed by geologists in the field, variscan for southwest to northeast, the variscan direction reflected the direction of ancient fold belts cropping out throughout Germany and adjacent countries and the meaning shifted from direction to the fold belt proper. One of the pioneers in research on the Variscan fold belt was the German geologist Franz Kossmat, the other direction, Hercynian, for the direction of the Harz Mountains in Germany, saw a similar shift in meaning. Today Hercynian is often used as a synonym for Variscan, but is less used than the latter. In the USA it is used for European orogenies, the contemporaneous. The regional term Variscan underwent a further meaning shift since the 1960s, geologists generally began to use it to characterize late Paleozoic fold-belts and orogenic phases having an age of approximately 380 to 280 Ma. The North American and European Variscan Belt includes the mountains of Portugal and Spain, southwestern Ireland, Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, the Gower Peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan. Its effects are present in France from Brittany, below the Paris Basin to the Ardennes, the Massif Central, the Variscan Belt reappears in Sardinia in Italy and in Germany where the Rhine Massif, the Black Forest and Harz Mountains remain as testimony. In the Czech Republic and Eastern Poland the Bohemian Massif is the end of the unmodified Variscan belt of crustal deformation in Europe. Further Variscan developments to the southeast are partly hidden and overprinted by the alpine orogeny, in the Alps a Variscan core is built by Mercantour, Pelvoux, Belledonne, Montblanc and Aar Massif. Dinaric, Greek and Turkish mountain chains are the termination of the Variscan proper. The Variscan was contemporaneous with the Acadian and Alleghenian orogeny in the United States and Canada, responsible for forming the Ouachita, North American areas with Variscan foldbelts include New England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Variscan mountains in a chronological sense include the Urals, the Pamir. The Variscan orogeny involved a complicated assembly of different microplates and heterochronous collisions. Plate convergence that caused the Caledonian orogeny in the Silurian continued to form the Variscan orogeny in the succeeding Devonian, both orogenies resulted in the assembly of a super-continent, Pangaea, which was essentially complete by the end of the Carboniferous. In the Ordovician Period, a mass, which has been named Gondwana. Off to the west were three other masses, Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica, located as if on the vertices of a triangle, to the south of them was a large archipelago, the terrane Avalonia, rifted off the north Gondwana margin in early Ordovician
Variscan orogeny
–
Location of the Hercynian-
Alleghenian mountain belts in the middle of the
Carboniferous period. Present day coastlines are indicated in grey for reference.
31.
Carboniferous
–
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Permian Period,298.9 Mya. The name Carboniferous means coal-bearing and derives from the Latin words carbō and ferō, and was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822. Based on a study of the British rock succession, it was the first of the system names to be employed. The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian. Terrestrial life was established by the Carboniferous period. Amphibians were the dominant land vertebrates, of one branch would eventually evolve into amniotes. Arthropods were also common, and many were much larger than those of today. Vast swaths of forest covered the land, which would eventually be laid down, the atmospheric content of oxygen also reached their highest levels in geological history during the period, 35% compared with 21% today, allowing terrestrial invertebrates to evolve to great size. A major marine and terrestrial extinction event, the Carboniferous rainforest collapse, occurred in the middle of the period, the later half of the period experienced glaciations, low sea level, and mountain building as the continents collided to form Pangaea. In the United States the Carboniferous is usually broken into Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods, the Silesian is roughly contemporaneous with the late Mississippian Serpukhovian plus the Pennsylvanian. In Britain the Dinantian is traditionally known as the Carboniferous Limestone, the Namurian as the Millstone Grit, and the Westphalian as the Coal Measures and Pennant Sandstone. There was also a drop in south polar temperatures, southern Gondwanaland was glaciated throughout the period and these conditions apparently had little effect in the deep tropics, where lush swamps, later to become coal, flourished to within 30 degrees of the northernmost glaciers. Mid-Carboniferous, a drop in sea level precipitated a major extinction, one that hit crinoids. This sea level drop and the unconformity in North America separate the Mississippian subperiod from the Pennsylvanian subperiod. This happened about 323 million years ago, at the onset of the Permo-Carboniferous Glaciation, the Carboniferous was a time of active mountain-building, as the supercontinent Pangaea came together. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America–Europe along the present line of eastern North America, in the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. Most of the Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea was now assembled, although North China, the Late Carboniferous Pangaea was shaped like an O. There were two major oceans in the Carboniferous—Panthalassa and Paleo-Tethys, which was inside the O in the Carboniferous Pangaea, other minor oceans were shrinking and eventually closed - Rheic Ocean, the small, shallow Ural Ocean and Proto-Tethys Ocean
Carboniferous
–
Generalized geographic map of the
United States in Middle
Pennsylvanian time.
Carboniferous
–
Lower Carboniferous marble in Big Cottonwood Canyon,
Wasatch Mountains,
Utah.
Carboniferous
–
Etching depicting some of the most significant plants of the Carboniferous.
Carboniferous
–
Ancient in situ
lycopsid, probably
Sigillaria, with attached
stigmarian roots.
32.
Pangaea
–
Pangaea or Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, in contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, much of Pangaea was in the southern hemisphere and surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa. Pangaea was the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists, the name Pangaea/Pangea is derived from Ancient Greek pan and Gaia. The name Pangea occurs in the 1920 edition of Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, but only once, the forming of supercontinents and their breaking up appears to have been cyclical through Earths history. There may have many others before Pangaea. When Rodinia broke up, it split into three pieces, the supercontinent of Proto-Laurasia, the supercontinent of Proto-Gondwana, and the smaller Congo craton, Proto-Laurasia and Proto-Gondwana were separated by the Proto-Tethys Ocean. Next Proto-Laurasia itself split apart to form the continents of Laurentia, Siberia, Baltica moved to the east of Laurentia, and Siberia moved northeast of Laurentia. The splitting also created two new oceans, the Iapetus Ocean and Paleoasian Ocean, most of the above masses coalesced again to form the relatively short-lived supercontinent of Pannotia. This supercontinent included large amounts of land near the poles and, near the equator, Pannotia lasted until 540 Ma, near the beginning of the Cambrian period and then broke up, giving rise to the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, and the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Baltica, Laurentia, and Avalonia all came together by the end of the Ordovician to form a supercontinent called Euramerica or Laurussia. The collision also resulted in the formation of the northern Appalachians, Siberia sat near Euramerica, with the Khanty Ocean between the two continents. While all this was happening, Gondwana drifted slowly towards the South Pole and this was the first step of the formation of Pangaea. The second step in the formation of Pangaea was the collision of Gondwana with Euramerica, by Silurian time,440 Ma, Baltica had already collided with Laurentia, forming Euramerica. Avalonia had not yet collided with Laurentia, but as Avalonia inched towards Laurentia, meanwhile, southern Europe broke off from Gondwana and began to move towards Euramerica across the newly formed Rheic Ocean. It collided with southern Baltica in the Devonian, though this microcontinent was an underwater plate, the Iapetus Oceans sister ocean, the Khanty Ocean, shrank as an island arc from Siberia collided with eastern Baltica. Behind this island arc was a new ocean, the Ural Ocean, by late Silurian time, North and South China split from Gondwana and started to head northward, shrinking the Proto-Tethys Ocean in their path and opening the new Paleo-Tethys Ocean to their south. In the Devonian Period, Gondwana itself headed towards Euramerica, causing the Rheic Ocean to shrink, South America moved northward to southern Euramerica, while the eastern portion of Gondwana headed toward the South Pole from the equator. North and South China were on independent continents, the Kazakhstania microcontinent had collided with Siberia
Pangaea
–
Appalachian orogeny
Pangaea
–
Map of Pangaea with modern continental outlines.
Pangaea
–
Example of an Ammonite
33.
Jurassic
–
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that spans 56.3 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles, the start of the period is marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. The Jurassic is named after the Jura Mountains within the European Alps, by the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had begun rifting into two landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. This created more coastlines and shifted the continental climate from dry to humid, on land, the fauna transitioned from the Triassic fauna, dominated by both dinosauromorph and crocodylomorph archosaurs, to one dominated by dinosaurs alone. The first birds also appeared during the Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs, other major events include the appearance of the earliest lizards, and the evolution of therian mammals, including primitive placentals. Crocodilians made the transition from a terrestrial to a mode of life. The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, the chronostratigraphic term Jurassic is directly linked to the Jura Mountains. The name Jura is derived from the Celtic root jor, which was Latinised into juria, the Jurassic period is divided into the Early Jurassic, Middle, and Late Jurassic epochs. The Jurassic System, in stratigraphy, is divided into the Lower Jurassic, Middle, the separation of the term Jurassic into three sections goes back to Leopold von Buch. The Jurassic North Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow, while the South Atlantic did not open until the following Cretaceous period, the Tethys Sea closed, and the Neotethys basin appeared. Climates were warm, with no evidence of glaciation, as in the Triassic, there was apparently no land over either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed. In contrast, the North American Jurassic record is the poorest of the Mesozoic, the Jurassic was a time of calcite sea geochemistry in which low-magnesium calcite was the primary inorganic marine precipitate of calcium carbonate. Carbonate hardgrounds were thus very common, along with calcitic ooids, calcitic cements, the first of several massive batholiths were emplaced in the northern American cordillera beginning in the mid-Jurassic, marking the Nevadan orogeny. Important Jurassic exposures are found in Russia, India, South America, Japan, Australasia. As the Jurassic proceeded, larger and more groups of dinosaurs like sauropods and ornithopods proliferated in Africa. Middle Jurassic strata are well represented nor well studied in Africa. Late Jurassic strata are also poorly represented apart from the spectacular Tendaguru fauna in Tanzania, the Late Jurassic life of Tendaguru is very similar to that found in western North Americas Morrison Formation. During the Jurassic period, the primary living in the sea were fish
Jurassic
–
Various
dinosaurs roamed forests of similarly large
conifers during the Jurassic period.
Jurassic
–
Jurassic limestones and marls (the
Matmor Formation) in southern
Israel.
Jurassic
–
The late Jurassic
Morrison Formation in
Colorado is one of the most fertile sources of dinosaur fossils in North America.
Jurassic
–
Gigandipus, a
dinosaur footprint in the Lower Jurassic
Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, southwestern
Utah.
34.
Laurasia
–
Laurasia was the more northern of two supercontinents that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent around 335 to 175 million years ago. It separated from Gondwana 215 to 175 Mya during the breakup of Pangaea, the name combines the names of Laurentia, the name given to the North American craton, and Eurasia. To avoid confusion with the Mesozoic continent, this is referred to as Proto-Laurasia and it is believed that Laurasia did not break up again before it recombined with the southern continents to form the late Precambrian supercontinent of Pannotia, which remained until the early Cambrian. Laurasia was assembled, then broken up, due to the actions of plate tectonics, continental drift, and seafloor spreading. By the Devonian, North China was located near the Arctic Circle, no evidence, though, exists for any large-scale Carboniferous glaciation of the northern continents. Siberia moved southwards and joined with Kazakhstania, a continental region believed today to have been created during the Silurian by extensive volcanism. North China became, as it drifted southwards from near-Arctic latitudes, around 200 million years ago, Pangaea started to break up. Between eastern North America and northwest Africa, a new ocean formed - the Atlantic Ocean, though Greenland, the separation of Europe and Greenland occurred around 55 million years ago. Laurasia finally divided into the continents after which it is named, alexander du Toit Alfred Wegener Avalonia
Laurasia
–
Map of
Pangea with Laurasia and Gondwana.
35.
Cretaceous
–
The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, during this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta, meaning chalk. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series, in older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series, Neocomian, Gallic and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide, in many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic and this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the usually accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin. Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age sees the study as a first step toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences, due to the high sea level there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the young age and great thickness of the system. Chalk is a type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites, among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls
Cretaceous
–
Drawing of fossil jaws of
Mosasaurus hoffmanni, from the
Maastrichtian of
Dutch Limburg, by Dutch geologist
Pieter Harting (1866).
Cretaceous
–
Although the first representatives of leafy trees and true grasses emerged in the Cretaceous, the flora was still dominated by conifers like
Araucaria (Here: Modern Araucaria araucana in Chile).
Cretaceous
–
Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest land predators of all time, lived during the late Cretaceous.
Cretaceous
–
Up to 2 m-long
Velociraptor was likely feathered and roamed the late Cretaceous.
36.
Eurasia
–
Eurasia /jʊˈreɪʒə/ is a combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. The term is a portmanteau of its constituent continents, in geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on the paleomagnet data, Eurasia covers around 55,000,000 square kilometres, or around 36. 2% of the Earths total land area. The landmass contains around 5.0 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population, humans first settled in Eurasia between 60,000 and 125,000 years ago. Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent, the concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geologically arbitrary. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and Eurasia is sometimes combined with Africa as the largest contiguous landmass on Earth called Afro-Eurasia. Eurasia formed 375 to 325 million years ago with the merging of Siberia, Kazakhstania, and Baltica, chinese cratons collided with Siberias southern coast. Eurasia has been the host of ancient civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia. In the Axial Age, a belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia, originally, “Eurasia” is a geographical notion, in this sense, it is simply the biggest continent, the combined landmass of Europe and Asia. However, geopolitically, the word has different meanings, reflecting the specific geopolitical interests of each nation. “Eurasia” is one of the most important geopolitical concepts, as Zbigniew Brzezinski observed, how America manages Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates “Eurasia” would control two of the three most advanced and economically productive regions. About 75 per cent of the people live in “Eurasia”. “Eurasia” accounts for about three-fourths of the known energy resources. ”At the moment one of the most prominent projects of the European Union is the Russia - EU Four Common Spaces Initiative. A political and economic union of former Soviet states named the Eurasian Economic Union was established in 2015, the Russian concept of “Eurasia” corresponded initially more or less to the land area of Imperial Russia in 1914, including parts of Eastern Europe. One of Russias main geopolitical interests lies in ever closer integration with those countries that it considers part of “Eurasia. ”Every two years since 1996 a meeting of most Asian and European countries is organised as the Asia-Europe Meeting. In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe and Asia as separate lands, where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion
Eurasia
–
Eurasia with surrounding areas of
Africa and
Australasia visible
Eurasia
–
Eurasia
Eurasia
–
Afro-Eurasian aspect of
Earth
37.
Pyrenees
–
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between France and Spain, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. The Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the range, with smaller northern portions now in France and larger southern parts now in Spain. The demonym for the noun Pyrenees in English is Pyrenean, in Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe, Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his hosts daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back Pyrene. … The mountains hold on to the name through the ages. Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, the Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west, Girona, Barcelona, Lleida, Huesca, Navarra and Gipuzkoa. The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, the independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees. Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections, the Atlantic, the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees, together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, at the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees. On the French side the slopes of the range descend abruptly. The Pyrenees are older than the Alps, their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, the intense pressure and uplifting of the Earths crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of granite and gneissose rocks, the massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, which is particularly resistant to erosion, as well as weak glacial development. Low passes are lacking, and the roads and the railroads between France and Spain run only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the Pyrenees. A notable visual feature of mountain range is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line. Coal deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, the open pit of Trimoun close to the commune of Luzenac is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe
Pyrenees
–
Central Pyrenees
Pyrenees
–
Composite satellite image of the Pyrenees (
NASA)
Pyrenees
–
Pico del Aneto, the highest mountain of the Pyrenees.
Pyrenees
–
Pic de Bugatet in the
Néouvielle massif
38.
Miocene
–
The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago. The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell and its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means less recent because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch, the earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, with the climate slowly cooling towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event, the apes arose and diversified during the Miocene, becoming widespread in the Old World. By the end of this epoch, the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path, as in the Oligocene before it, grasslands continued to expand and forests to dwindle in extent. In the Miocene seas, kelp forests made their first appearance, the plants and animals of the Miocene were fairly modern. The Miocene faunal stages from youngest to oldest are typically named according to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, Two subdivisions each form the lower, middle, continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Mountain building took place in western North America, Europe, both continental and marine Miocene deposits are common worldwide with marine outcrops common near modern shorelines. Well studied continental exposures occur in the North American Great Plains, India continued to collide with Asia, creating dramatic new mountain ranges. The Tethys Seaway continued to shrink and then disappeared as Africa collided with Eurasia in the Turkish–Arabian region between 19 and 12 Ma. The subsequent uplift of mountains in the western Mediterranean region and a fall in sea levels combined to cause a temporary drying up of the Mediterranean Sea near the end of the Miocene. The global trend was towards increasing aridity caused primarily by global cooling reducing the ability of the atmosphere to absorb moisture, climates remained moderately warm, although the slow global cooling that eventually led to the Pleistocene glaciations continued. Although a long-term cooling trend was well underway, there is evidence of a period during the Miocene when the global climate rivalled that of the Oligocene. The Miocene warming began 21 million years ago and continued until 14 million years ago, by 8 million years ago, temperatures dropped sharply once again, and the Antarctic ice sheet was already approaching its present-day size and thickness. Greenland may have begun to have large glaciers as early as 7 to 8 million years ago, life during the Miocene Epoch was mostly supported by the two newly formed biomes, kelp forests and grasslands. This allows for more grazers, such as horses, rhinoceroses, ninety five percent of modern plants existed by the end of this epoch. The higher organic content and water retention of the deeper and richer grassland soils, with long term burial of carbon in sediments, produced a carbon and this, combined with higher surface albedo and lower evapotranspiration of grassland, contributed to a cooler, drier climate. The expansion of grasslands and radiations among terrestrial herbivores correlates to fluctuations in CO2
Miocene
–
The
dragon blood tree is considered a remnant of the Mio-Pliocene Laurasian subtropical forests that are now almost extinct in North Africa.
Miocene
–
Cameloid footprint (Lamaichnum alfi Sarjeant and Reynolds, 1999; convex hyporelief) from the
Barstow Formation (Miocene) of Rainbow Basin, California.
Miocene
–
Miocene fauna of North America
Miocene
–
A Miocene crab (Tumidocarcinus giganteus) from the collection of the
Children's Museum of Indianapolis
39.
Pliocene
–
The Pliocene Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era, the Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene. As with other geologic periods, the geological strata that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start. The boundaries defining the Pliocene are not set at an easily identified worldwide event, the upper boundary was set at the start of the Pleistocene glaciations. The Pliocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell, the name comes from the Greek words πλεῖον and καινός and means roughly continuation of the recent, referring to the essentially modern marine mollusc faunas. H. W. Fowler called the term a regrettable barbarism, in the official timescale of the ICS, the Pliocene is subdivided into two stages. From youngest to oldest they are, Piacenzian Zanclean The Piacenzian is sometimes referred to as the Late Pliocene, in the system of North American Land Mammal Ages include Hemphillian, and Blancan. The Blancan extends forward into the Pleistocene, South American Land Mammal Ages include Montehermosan, Chapadmalalan and Uquian. In the Paratethys area the Pliocene contains the Dacian and Romanian stages, as usual in stratigraphy, there are many other regional and local subdivisions in use. In Britain the Pliocene is divided into the stages, Gedgravian, Waltonian, Pre-Ludhamian, Ludhamian, Thurnian, Bramertonian or Antian, Pre-Pastonian or Baventian, Pastonian and Beestonian. The exact correlations between these stages and the ICS stages is still a matter of detail. The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by a shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic. Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch, the global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas. Continents continued to drift, moving from positions possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current locations, africas collision with Europe formed the Mediterranean Sea, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. The border between the Miocene and the Pliocene is also the time of the Messinian salinity crisis, Sea level changes exposed the land-bridge between Alaska and Asia. Pliocene marine rocks are exposed in the Mediterranean, India. Elsewhere, they are exposed largely near shores, the change to a cooler, dry, seasonal climate had considerable impacts on Pliocene vegetation, reducing tropical species worldwide. Deciduous forests proliferated, coniferous forests and tundra covered much of the north, tropical forests were limited to a tight band around the equator, and in addition to dry savannahs, deserts appeared in Asia and Africa
Pliocene
–
The
gastropod Oliva sayana, from the Pliocene of
Florida.
Pliocene
–
Mid-Pliocene reconstructed annual sea surface temperature anomaly
Pliocene
–
The
coral Cladocora from the Pliocene of
Cyprus.
Pliocene
–
A gastropod and attached serpulid wormtube from the Pliocene of Cyprus.
40.
Straits of Gibraltar
–
The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Peninsular Spain in Europe from Morocco and Ceuta in Africa. The name comes from the Rock of Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq named after Tariq ibn Ziyad. It is also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, the Gut of Gibraltar, the STROG in naval use, and Bab Al Maghrib, Gate of the West. In the Middle Ages, Muslims called it Al-Zuqaq, The Passage, the Romans called it Fretum Gatitanum, Europe and Africa are separated by 7.7 nautical miles of ocean at the straits narrowest point. Ferries cross between the two every day in as little as 35 minutes. The Spanish side of the Strait is protected under El Estrecho Natural Park, on the northern side of the Strait are Spain and Gibraltar, while on the southern side are Morocco and Ceuta. Its boundaries were known in antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules, there are several islets, such as the disputed Isla Perejil, that are claimed by both Morocco and Spain. Due to its location, the Strait is commonly used for illegal immigration from Africa to Europe, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Strait of Gibraltar as follows, On the West. A line joining Cape Trafalgar to Cape Spartel, a line joining Europa Point to P. Almina. The seabed of the Strait is composed of synorogenic Betic-Rif clayey flysch covered by Pliocene and/or Quaternary calcareous sediments, exposed bedrock surfaces, coarse sediments and local sand dunes attest to the strong bottom current conditions at the present time. The resultant accumulation of huge salt and mineral deposits about the Mediterranean basin are directly linked to this era. It is believed that this took a short time, by geological standards. The erosion produced by the incoming waters seems to be the cause for the present depth of the strait. The strait is expected to close again as the African Plate moves northward relative to the Eurasian Plate, for full articles on the history of the north Gibraltar shore, see History of Gibraltar or History of Spain. For the full article on the history of the south Gibraltar shore, evidence of the first human habitation of the area by Neanderthals dates back to 125,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence of Homo sapiens habitation of the dates back c.40,000 years. In that year, the last Muslim government north of the straits was overthrown by a Spanish force, the small British enclave of the city of Gibraltar presents a third cultural group found in the straits. This enclave was first established in 1704 and has since used by Britain to act as a surety for control of the sea lanes into
Straits of Gibraltar
–
The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. (North is to the left: The Iberian Peninsula is on the left and North Africa on the right).
Straits of Gibraltar
–
Africa (right, on horizon) and Europe (left) from Gibraltar.
Straits of Gibraltar
–
A view across the Strait of Gibraltar taken from the hills above Tarifa, Spain.
Straits of Gibraltar
–
Historic map of the Strait of Gibraltar by
Piri Reis.
41.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
42.
Ardennes
–
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges formed by the geological features of the Ardennes mountain range and the Moselle and Meuse River basins. Geologically, the range is a extension of the Eifel. The eastern part of the Ardennes forms the northernmost third of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, also called Oesling, the greater region maintained an industrial eminence into the 20th century after coal replaced charcoal in metallurgy. The region is typified by steep-sided valleys carved by swift-flowing rivers and its most populous cities are Verviers in Belgium and Charleville-Mézières in France, both exceeding 50,000 inhabitants. The Ardennes is otherwise relatively sparsely populated, with few of the cities exceeding 10,000 inhabitants with a few exceptions like Eupen or Bastogne. The Eifel range in Germany adjoins the Ardennes and is part of the geological formation. N. B. the Belgian Province of Luxembourg in the above list is not to be confused with the known as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The Ardennes is an old mountain formed during the Hercynian orogeny, in France similar formations are the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the low interior of such old mountains often contain coal, plus iron, zinc and other metals in the sub-soil. This geologic fact explains the greatest part of the geography of Wallonia, the region was uplifted by a mantle plume during the last few hundred thousand years, as measured from the present elevation of old river terraces. This geological region is important in the history of Wallonia because this old mountain is at the origin of the economy, the history, Wallonia presents a wide range of rocks of various ages. Some geological stages internationally recognized were defined from rock sites located in Wallonia, except for the Tournaisian, all these rocks are within the Ardennes geological area. Before the 19th century industrialization, the first furnaces in the four Walloon provinces and in the French Ardennes used charcoal for fuel and this industry was also in the extreme south of the present-day Belgian province of Luxembourg, in the region called Gaume. Wallonia became the industrial power area of the world in proportion to its territory. The rugged terrain of the Ardennes limits the scope for agriculture, arable, the region is rich in timber and minerals, and Liège and Namur are both major industrial centres. The extensive forests have an abundant population of wild game, the scenic beauty of the region and its wide variety of outdoor activities, including hunting, cycling, walking and canoeing, make it a popular tourist destination. The region took its name from the ancient Silva, a vast forest in Roman times called Arduenna Silva, the modern Ardennes covers a much smaller area. The Song of Roland describes Charlemagne as having a nightmare the night before the Battle of Roncevaux Pass of 778 and this nightmare took place in the Ardennes forest, where his most important battles occurred. Another song about Charlemagne, the Old French 12th-century chanson de geste Quatre Fils Aymon, mentions many of Wallonias rivers, villages and other places
Ardennes
–
Landscape of Frahan inside the bend of the
Semois River
Ardennes
–
The hilly and forested regions of the Ardennes
Ardennes
–
The center of the transboundary highlands of the Ardennes and the Eifel
Ardennes
–
Rock Bayard of Dinant, on the right bank of the
Meuse River. In one legend, a magic horse jumped from the top of this rock to the left bank of the river, carrying the Quatre Fils Aymon fleeing
Charlemagne.
43.
Belgium
–
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
Belgium
–
Charlemagne and
Charles V
Belgium
–
Flaga
Belgium
Belgium
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830 (1834), by
Egide Charles Gustave Wappers
44.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
45.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
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The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
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Flag
Germany
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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
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Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
46.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
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Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
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Flag
Poland
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Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
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Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
47.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
Ireland
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Satellite image of Ireland on 11 October 2010
Ireland
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The
Gowran Ogham Stone,
Christianised c.6th Century. On display in
St. Mary's Collegiate Church Gowran.
Ireland
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The Uragh Stone Circle a
Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park,
County Kerry
48.
Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination
Iberian Peninsula
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Satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula.
Iberian Peninsula
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Iberian Peninsula and southern France, satellite photo on a cloudless day in March 2014
Iberian Peninsula
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Map of Spain and Portugal, Atlas historique, dated approximately 1705–1739, of H.A. Chatelain.
Iberian Peninsula
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An 18th-century map of the peninsula depicting various topographical features of the land, as published in Robert Wilkinson's General Atlas, circa 1794.
49.
London-Brabant Island
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The massif also occurs in the Dutch subsurface, where it is bounded to the northeast by the Roer Valley Graben that runs diagonally through Dutch Limburg. The Midlands Microcraton is often considered part of the massif and to reflect this the names Wales–Brabant Massif, Wales–London–Brabant Massif, the London–Brabant Massif is part of the former microcontinent Avalonia. To the south it borders the Rhenohercynian Zone of the Hercynian orogeny, to the northeast it is flanked by the Anglo-Dutch Basin in the subsurface of the North Sea. At some moments in history the London–Brabant Massif formed an island. The massif is composed of crystalline basement with Proterozoic to early Paleozoic ages and it was deformed and metamorphosed during the Cadomian orogeny and Caledonian orogeny. This basement is almost everywhere overlain by sedimentary rocks, except for some places in the southwest of England. The continent Avalonia was until the Ordovician part of the southern continent Gondwana. The strata, particularly of the Precambrian are complex and their continuity is also poorly understood because they are beyond the reach of most boreholes. The period from which the island has exercised most economic influence on modern Europe was the Carboniferous, as the continent was drifting past the Equator, on the islands shores, there grew a rich tropical forest swamp. On the islands shore, it left the Dinantian, Namurian and Westphalian coal fields of France, Belgium. To its northwest, the thinner crust between it and the Market Weighton Axis was crumpled between the blocks leaving low ridges of wet land between strips of water such as the Widmerpool Gulf, on the wet land, the coal fields of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were deposited. These extend further east but are now at ever greater depth, at the modern east Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire coast for example, their upper surface is at about 2 km depth. These Carboniferous beds are part of a system linking with those of Westphalia and this time, the lateritic soils are represented by the New Red Sandstone and the red soils of Leicestershire and Rutland. The early Permian was the time of the height of the Variscan earth movements as the crust to the south was crushed against the island, the great disturbances seen at the surface in Brittany, the Ardennes and the Rhineland also lie below the Paris Basin. They fade out in the anticline of the downs and Weald of southern England which overlies the edge of the island. The axis of this anticline is normally called the northern Variscan front, however, the chalk of the downs is Upper Cretaceous, so the process continued well after the Permian. The point in the present context is that the stability of the contrasts with the relatively unstable crust to its south. To the north, economically important things were happening, western Britain was pushed up as part of the Variscan Orogeny while the east of Britain, including the island began to subside leaving a broad basin, north of the island and south of Scandinavia
London-Brabant Island
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