EARTH

The First Supercontinent We Can Map

~1.8 to 1.4 billion years ago

Proterozoic · Paleoproterozoic · Statherian

Continental blocks collided and welded together along mountain belts, gathering nearly all the world's land into a single mass. Earlier assemblies are suspected; this is the first that left enough rock to draw a coherent map of the whole planet. Geologists call it Columbia, or Nuna.

Why it matters

The supercontinent cycle takes its first beat here, and it will pace climate, sea level and evolution for the rest of the planet's history.

Dating & uncertainty

Palaeomagnetic poles are sparse for this age, so the arrangement varies between reconstructions. Assembly is placed between 1.9 and 1.58 Ga and break-up around 1.45 to 1.38 Ga, with several cratons still unplaced.

Sources

1. Pisarevsky et al. (2014), Precambrian Research · Mesoproterozoic paleogeography: supercontinent and beyond
2. Bogdanova et al. (2015), Precambrian Research · Trans-Baltic Palaeoproterozoic correlations towards the reconstruction of supercontinent Columbia/Nuna
3. Merdith et al. (2021), Earth-Science Reviews · Extending full-plate tectonic models into deep time: linking the Neoproterozoic and the Phanerozoic

Earth history as one day

14:29:049 h 31 min before midnight

if Earth’s 4.54 billion years were compressed into a single day