The blue ocean surrounding Pangaea is Panthalassa

Panthalassa (Greek, meaning 'all seas'), also known as the Panthalassic Ocean, was the vast global ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea, during the Paleozoic and the early Mesozoic eras. An ocean (from Greek, ''Okeanos'' (Oceanus) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the Hydrosphere. Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c An ocean (from Greek, ''Okeanos'' (Oceanus) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the Hydrosphere. In Geology, a supercontinent is a Landmass comprising more than one Continental core or Craton. Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era (from the Greek palaio (παλαιο "old" and zoe (ζωη "life" meaning "ancient life" The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. It included the Pacific Ocean to the west and north and the Tethys Ocean to the southeast. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions The Tethys Ocean was a Mesozoic era Ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia before the opening of the Indian It became the Pacific Ocean, following the closing of the Tethys basin and the breakup of Pangaea, which created the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian Ocean basins. The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface The Panthalassic is often called the Paleo-Pacific ("old Pacific") because the Pacific Ocean evolved from it.

In the map on the right, the Earth's equator was a line that roughly crossed the spot where Spain, Morocco (Casa Blanca), and Boston met. A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, Regions, and Themes EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 The equator (sometimes referred to colloquially as "the Line") is the intersection of the Earth 's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Casablanca (in Standard Arabic: الدار البيضاء ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ; Moroccan Arabic: dar beïda الدار البيضا South of that line, the land mass was called Gondwana. Gondwana (ɡɒnˈdwɑːnə originally Gondwanaland) was a southern Supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Ma ago North of the line, it was named Laurasia. Laurasia (lɔˈreɪʃiə lɔˈreɪʒə was a Supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic

Formation

By 900 million years ago a triple junction formed as the supercontinent Rodinia started to rift apart. A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three Tectonic plates meet For the Genus of Metalmark butterflies, see Rodinia (butterfly. In Geology, a rift is a place where the Earth 's crust and Lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of Extensional tectonics Between about 800 million and 700 million years ago, it split in half. This was one of the most significant rifting events of all time, because it opened up the Panthalassic Ocean to the west of Laurentia, a continent that became North America. Laurentia (also known as the North American craton) like all Craton land was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth In western Laurentia (North America), tectonic episodes that preceded this rifting produced failed rifts that harbored large depositional basins in Western Laurentia. In Geology, an aulacogen is a failed arm of a Triple junction of a Plate tectonics rift system The global ocean of Mirovia, an ocean that surrounded Rodinia, started to shrink because the Pan-African ocean and Panthalassa were expanding. Mirovia (from Russian мировой mirovoy, meaning "global" was an hypothesized paleo-ocean which may have been a global Ocean that surrounded Between 650 million and 550 million years ago, another supercontinent was forming, Pannotia, which was shaped like a "V". Pannotia, first described by Ian W D Dalziel in 1997 is a hypothetical Supercontinent that existed from the Pan-African orogeny about 600 million years ago to the Inside the "V" was Panthalassa, outside of the "V" was the Pan-African Ocean and remnants of the Mirovia Ocean. The Pan-African Ocean is an hypothesized paleo-ocean that surrounded the Supercontinent of Pannotia.

Most of Panthalassa's oceanic basin and crust has been subducted under the North American plate, and the Eurasian plate. Hydrologically an oceanic basin may be anywhere on Earth that is covered by Seawater, but geologically ocean basins are large geologic basins Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's Lithosphere that surfaces in the Ocean basins The North American Plate is a Tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. The Eurasian Plate is a Tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional Continents of Europe Panthalassa's oceanic plate remnants may be the Juan de Fuca Plate, Gorda plate, Cocos Plate, and the Nazca plate, all four of which, were part of the Farallon Plate. The Juan de Fuca Plate, named after the explorer, is a Tectonic plate arising from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and subducting under the northerly The Gorda Plate, located beneath the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California, is one of the northern remnants of the Farallon Plate. The Cocos Plate is an oceanic Tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic Tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west The Farallon Plate was an ancient Oceanic plate, which began Subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate &mdash then located in modern The Pacific Ocean evolved from Panthalassa after the break-up of the supercontinent of Pangaea. Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in

See also

• Plate tectonics
• Paleontology
• Pangaea
• Pacific Ring of Fire

External links

• Paleomap project