Re: Prior to Gondwana?

[cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au (Chris Nedin)]

Skip Dahlgren wrote:
[...]

>All sources that I have been able to find refer to no earlier land
>configuration than the unified supercontinent Gondwana.  Yet it seems
>reasonable to assume that there must have been movement prior to Gondwana.
>This huge cluster must have been the result of earlier continental movements
>and collisions.
>
>Is there simply no popular interest in the configuration of these earlier
>continents, has the matter not been studied, or is it too difficult to
>project continental movements back in time prior to the Gondwana
>supercontinent?
>
>Any info or suggested resources for further pursuit of such info would be
>appreciated.

Try these references (and references therein):

Dalziel, I.W.D. (1991) Pacific margins of Laurentia and East
Antartic-Australia as a conjugate rift pair: Evidence and implications for
an Eocambrian  supercontinent. Geology, 19: 598-601.

Duncan, C.C. & Turcotte, D.L. (1994) On the breakup and coalescence of
continents. Geology, 22: 103-106.

Hoffman, P.F. (1988) United plates of America, the birth of a craton: Early
Proterozoic assembly and growth of Laurentia. Annual Review of Earth and
Planetary Sciences, 16: 543-604.

Hoffman, P.F. (1991) Did the breakout of Laurentia turn Gondwanaland inside
out? Science, 252: 1409-1411.

Moores, E.M. (1991) Southwest U.S. East Antarctic (SWEAT) connection: A
hypothesis. Geology, 19: 425-428.

Park, J.K. (1994) Palaeomagnetic constraints on the position of Laurentia
from Middle Proterozoic to Early Cambrian times. Precambrian Research, 69:
95-112.

Van der Voo, R., McCabe, C. & Scortese, C. (1984) Was Laurentia part of an
Eocambrian supercontinent? In: Van der Voo et al. (eds.), Plate
reconstructions from Paleozoic paleomagnetism. American Geophysical Union
Geodynamics Series, 2: 131-136.

Chris

cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au,   nedin@ediacara.org
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Many say it was a mistake to come down from the trees, some say
the move out of the oceans was a bad idea. Me, I say the stiffening
of the notochord in the Cambrian was where it all went wrong,
it was all downhill from there.