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View of Earth, 306 million years ago timebar 306 million years ago

brown square Reconstructing the past
brown square What’s going on here?
brown square See continents move through time
brown square Ancient life
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Earth
306 million years ago

Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian)

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Reconstructing ancient Earth
spacer image These remarkable figures are produced by C.R. Scotese and the PALEOMAP project. Geologists call these illustrations paleogeographic reconstructions, because they illustrate the reconstructed geography of our Earth at some time in the past.
spacer image Making a paleogeographic reconstruction begins by examining several lines of evidence including: paleomagnetism, magnetic anomalies, paleobiogeography, paleoclimatology, and geologic history. By combining all available evidence, geologists are able to construct paleogeographic maps, such as these, that interpret how the geography might have appeared at a specific location and time in the past. Paleogeographic maps are continually being refined as more evidence is collected.
spacer image To find out more about how paleogeographic reconstructions are made visit the PALEOMAP project site.

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What’s going on here?

  • The series of continental collisions that will create Pangaea are in full swing! Africa and South America plow into Euramerica, building Himalaya-scale mountains where they meet.

  • Notice the southern ice cap now extends far to the north. Continental ice sheets left behind glacial deposits that tell us that this was a time of long-lived ice age climate conditions.

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  • Learn more about this time period at the PALEOMAP project site.
  • Learn more about geologic time.
  • Learn more about plate tectonics.

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| Today | 0.018 | 14 | 50 | 69 | 94 | 152 | 195 | 237 | 255 | 306 | 356 | 390 | 425 | 458 | 514 | 650 |
Time in millions of years. Jump back to visit any time!

Scotese, C. R., 1997. Paleogeographic Atlas, PALEOMAP Progress Report 90-0497, Department of Geology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, 37 pp.
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http://www.nature.nps.gov/grd/usgsnps/pltec/sc306ma.html
This page was last updated on 12/16/98