The supercontinent Pangaea surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa.

A superocean is an ocean which surrounds a supercontinent. 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. It is less commonly defined as any ocean larger than the current Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions ^[1] Named global superoceans include Mirovia, which surrounded the supercontinent Rodinia, and Panthalassa, which surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea. Mirovia (from Russian мировой mirovoy, meaning "global" was an hypothesized paleo-ocean which may have been a global Ocean that surrounded For the Genus of Metalmark butterflies, see Rodinia (butterfly. Panthalassa ( Greek, meaning 'all seas' also known as the Panthalassic Ocean, was the vast global Ocean that surrounded the Supercontinent Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in Pannotia and Columbia, along with landmasses before Columbia (such as Ur), were also surrounded by superoceans. 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 Columbia is the name of one of the Earth's oldest Supercontinents It was first proposed by J Ur is the first known continent that probably formed 3 billion years ago in the early Archean Eon.

As surface water moves unobstructed east to west in superoceans, it tends to warm from the exposure to sunlight so that the western edge of the ocean is warmer than the eastern. Sunlight, in the broad sense is the total spectrum of the Electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. Additionally, seasonal changes in temperature, which would have been significantly more rapid inland, probably caused powerful monsoons. A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind which lasts for several months In general, however, the mechanics of superoceans are not well understood. ^[2]

List of superoceans

• Mirovia (Rodinia)
• Pan-African Ocean (Pannotia)
• Panthalassic Ocean or Panthalassa (Pangaea)
• Mega Pacific Ocean (Pangaea Ultima)

References

1. ^ McMenamin, Mark A. Mirovia (from Russian мировой mirovoy, meaning "global" was an hypothesized paleo-ocean which may have been a global Ocean that surrounded For the Genus of Metalmark butterflies, see Rodinia (butterfly. The Pan-African Ocean is an hypothesized paleo-ocean that surrounded the Supercontinent of Pannotia. 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 Panthalassa ( Greek, meaning 'all seas' also known as the Panthalassic Ocean, was the vast global Ocean that surrounded the Supercontinent Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in Pangaea Ultima (also Pangaea Proxima, Neopangaea, or Pangaea II) is a possible future Supercontinent configuration and an alternative to the ; Dianna L. McMenamin [1990-01-15]. The Emergence of Animals. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-06647-3.  
2. ^ Martin, Ronald [1998-04-08]. "Cycles and Secular Trends", One Long Experiment. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10905-9.