Pangaea – Assembly and Fragmentation of a Supercontinent | Tony Doré, Ph.D.

Tony Doré is the Global Chief Scientist and Senior Advisor to the Director of EGI. This Webinar occurred on March 7th 2024. The supercontinent of Pangaea - its formation, its consequences and its break-up – are fundamental issues in the history of the planet, of importance to geologists in both the industrial and academic worlds. I will show new ideas and research on Pangaea, addressing the following key questions: Is the Supercontinent Cycle real, or is the plate tectonic process less repetitive and more chaotic than hitherto recognized? What are the reasons for the devastating volcanism affecting the Pangaean interior, including the most extensive known volcanic episode in Earth’s history? Is the extreme sedimentary flux in the Arctic - forming the world’s largest known delta - part of a more widespread, global phenomenon? I will discuss the possible reasons for Pangaean fragmentation, and its tectonic signature. I will attempt to show that this process is not simply a manifestation of the concertina-like opening of oceans and closing of orogens, but also significantly related to the exploitation of continental-scale strike-slip zones. Finally, I will discuss how these modes of break-up were manifested, in different ways, in today’s deep water ocean margins.