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Panthalassa

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Panthalassa [‚pan·thə′las·ə]
(geology)
The hypothetical proto-ocean surrounding Pangea, supposed by some geologists to have combined all the oceans or areas of oceanic crust of the earth at an early time in the geologic past.


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Finally, in the field of Paleozoic paleogeographic reconstructions, a time when all agree that most terranes were extremely mobile and the only question is where in the vast reaches of Panthalassa did they reside, there is some good and useful new paleontologic fodder in the Pedder and the Gunning and Belasky contributions.
So, through changes in the magnetic polarity of crust on the ocean floor, it is possible to track the movement of oceans and continents--back to the point, 250 million years ago, when there was a single super-continent, Pangea, and just one super-ocean, Panthalassa.
The Panthalassa Ocean covered two-thirds of the globe, while a single continent called Pangaea stretched from the North to the South pole.
 
 
 
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