Arctica
Arctica was an ancient continent which formed approximately 2.5 billion years ago in the Neoarchean era.
Arctica consisted of the Canadian and Siberian shields, and is now roughly situated in the Arctic around the current North Pole.
History
Arctica joined with the continents Atlantica and Nena about one billion years ago to form the supercontinent, Rodinia.
With the breakup of the supercontinent, Arctica's fragments have mostly stayed at higher latitudes.
The regions of Severnaya Zemlya, Svalbard, the New Siberian Islands, a small part of the Taimyr Peninsula, the northern tips of Alaska and Chukotka, some islands near Greenland (and the Kara Sea shelf) were apparently artifacts from the second time Arctica continent broke apart.
Nomenclature
Arctica was chosen as a name because since its formation the continent and the cratons that broke away from it have spent most of their time in northerly latitudes.
See also
Geological research
References
- John J. W. Rogers: A history of continents in the past three billion years. Journal of Geology, 104: 91–107, Chicago, 1996
- John J. W. Rogers, M. Santosh: Supercontinents in Earth History. Gondwana Research, 6(3): 357–368, Osaka 2003. DOI: 10.1016/S1342-937X(05)70993-X
- Sankaran, A. V., The Supercontinent Medley: Recent Views. Current Science, 2003-08-25.
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