These paleo-graphic visualizations are commercial products and are therefore not available from NOAA nor are they included or distributed as part of the Science On a Sphere^® system. These visualizations can be purchased from the contacts listed below.

Plate Tectonics and Paleo Animation

Description:

There are two different animations that show the plate tectonics through history. The first is from the ARC Science Center. It is a time-elapsed frame set of approximately 4000 high-resolution images with original artwork visualizing the evolution of the Earth's surface due to plate tectonics over the past 600 million years. The second is from Prof. Chris Scotese, PALEOMAP Project. The PALEOMAP Drift animations show the motions of the continents and the evolution of the ocean basins from the late Precambrian (750 million years ago), through the assembly and breakup of Pangea (250 million years ago), and extends the modern plate motions +250 million years into the future (Pangea Ultima). The whole animation is approximately 8000 frames. Both datasets show the large southern landmass called Pannotia, which began to break apart into several small pieces as well as Gondwana 550 million years ago, which eventually became the cores of North America, Northern Europe, and Siberia. The smaller pieces from the break up of Pannotia drifted together to form Laurasia. Gondwana and Laurasia drifted for more than 200 million years, and then came back together again, pushing up a great mountain range of which the Appalachian Mountains are one remnant.

This new super continent, Pangaea, then began its break up around 300 million years ago into what became the present day world. During the Jurassic period, 140-180 million years ago, the North Atlantic opened up, followed by South America and Africa pulling apart to create the South Atlantic, and then the final break up of Gondwana into India, Australia, and Antarctica. When India broke free from other landmasses, it traveled with great speed toward current day Asia. The collision between the two land masses caused the Himalayas to form. Also during this time, several mass extinctions occurred due to various warming and cooling events.

The original 29 frames that were used to created that Arc Science Plate Tectonics Animation are available for public use from Dr. Ron Blakey.

Notable Features:

• Both the PALEOMAP and ARC Science animations can be customized to include a marker that travels with the continents indicating the location of a particular museum, city or state through time.
• Appearance of green shading signifying the presence of plant life
• Appalachian Mountains: oldest remnant mountain range to appear
• Pangaea: Major super continent that broke up 300 million years ago
• Break off of India which collides into Asia with great speed causing the formation of the Himalayas and Mount Everest
• Labels indicating the year and the geological period are available

Data Category

Major: Land, Models and Simulations

Keywords:

Land, Models and Simulations, paleontology, plate tectonics

Data Set Name	Paleo Geographic
Data Set Directory Name	paleo/arc_science
Dats Set Source	Ron Blakey, Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University
Data Set Developer	ARC Science Simulations; Loveland, Colorado
Visualization Developer	ARC Science Simulations; Loveland, Colorado
Audio	/shared/sos/media/audio/CoupeStudios/Music/PlateTectonics.mp3
Contact	Thomas Ligon, ARC Science Simulations, 970-667-1168

Data Set Name	Scotese Paleo Drift
Data Set Directory Name	paleo/scotese
Dats Set Source	Prof. Christopher Scotese, PALEOMAP Project
Data Set Developer	Prof. Christopher Scotese, PALEOMAP Project
Visualization Developer	Prof. Christopher Scotese, PALEOMAP Project
Audio	no
Contact	Chris Scotese Paleomap Project, 817-275-1697

Data Set Name	Paleo Geographic raw frames from Blakey
Data Set Directory Name	blakey_paleo
Dats Set Source	Ron Blakey, Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University
Data Set Developer	Ron Blakey, Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University
Visualization Developer	Ron Blakey, Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University
Audio	no
Contact	Ron Blakey, Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University
Download	FTP