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Supercontinents and the case for Pannotia

View ORCID ProfileR. Damian Nance and J. Brendan Murphy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 470, 1 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP470.5
R. Damian Nance
Department of Geological Sciences, 316 Clippinger Laboratories, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA
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J. Brendan Murphy
Department of Earth Sciences, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada
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Abstract

Disagreement about the existence of the late Neoproterozoic supercontinent Pannotia highlights the limitation of defining supercontinents simply on the basis of size, which, for pre-Pangaean supercontinents, is difficult to determine. In the context of the supercontinent cycle, however, supercontinent assembly and break-up, respectively, mark the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next and can be recognized by the tectonic, climatic and biogeochemical trends that accompany them. Hence supercontinents need only be large enough to influence mantle circulation in such a way as to enable the cycle to repeat. Their recognition need not rely solely on continental reconstructions, but can also exploit a variety of secular trends that accompany their amalgamation and break-up. Although the palaeogeographical and age constraints for the existence of Pannotia remain equivocal, the proxy signals of supercontinent assembly and break-up in the late Neoproterozoic are unmistakable. These signals cannot be readily attributed to either the break-up of Rodinia or the assembly of Gondwana without ignoring either the assembly phase of Pan-African orogenesis and the changes in mantle circulation that accompany this phase, or the reality that Gondwana cannot be a supercontinent in the context of the supercontinent cycle because its break-up coincides with that of Pangaea.

  • © 2018 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. All rights reserved

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Geological Society, London, Special Publications: 468 (1)
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Supercontinents and the case for Pannotia

R. Damian Nance and J. Brendan Murphy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 470, 1 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP470.5
R. Damian Nance
Department of Geological Sciences, 316 Clippinger Laboratories, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for R. Damian Nance
  • For correspondence: nance@ohio.edu
J. Brendan Murphy
Department of Earth Sciences, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site

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Supercontinents and the case for Pannotia

R. Damian Nance and J. Brendan Murphy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 470, 1 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP470.5
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