Pannotia was a supercontinent that existed from about 600 mya to about 540 mya. It was first described by Dalziel in 1997.

About 750 mya, the previous supercontinent Rodinia rifted apart into three continents:

• Protolaurasia (Protolaurasia broke apart and eventually reformed as Laurasia)
• The continent (craton) of Congo
• Protogondwana (all of Gondwana except the Congo craton and Atlantica)

Protolaurasia rotated southwards towards the south pole. Protogondwana rotated counterclockwise. Congo came between Protogondwana and Protolaurasia about six hundred mya. This formed Pannotia.

Pannotia was short-lived. The collisions that formed Pannotia were glancing collisions, and the continents composing Pannotia already had active rifting. By about 540 mya, or only about 60 million years after Pannotia formed, Pannotia disintegrated into four continents: Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana.

External links

• A picture about Pannotia according to Professor Christopher Scotese , Ph.D. (it is referred to as the late Precambrian Supercontinent in the image).