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Pangaea

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Pangaea (from the Greek for, "all lands") is the name Alfred Wegener used to refer to the supercontinent that existed during the Mesozoic period, before the process of plate tectonics again separated the continents. Pangaea broke up about 200 million years ago. When the continents first came together to form Pangaea, mountains were formed. Some of these ranges survive today as the Appalachian Mountains and the Ural Mountains. The vast ocean that surrounded Pangaea is called Panthalassa.

The mantle under its former location is still hot and trying to rise upward. As a result, Africa sits several tens of meters higher than the other continents.

Pangaea broke into two parts:

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