Question

Which continents of today were part of the Gondwana land?

Answer 1

Hint: Gondwana, a supercontinent broke up about 180 million years ago. The continent gradually split into different landmasses.

Complete answer: The Pangea, a larger supercontinent, broke up about 200 million years ago into two ancient supercontinents Gondwana and Laurasia. Laurasia an ancient supercontinent existed in the northern hemisphere which broke up 200 million ago and the Gondwana clustered near the Antarctic Circle existed in the southern hemisphere.

During the late Precambrian period, about 600 million years ago the final formation of Gondwana occurred. The first split of Gondwana happened during the Jurassic period approximately 180 million years ago consisting of the modern-day continents of Africa, Antarctica, Australia, India and South America. The name Gondwana was termed by an Austrian geologist Eduard Suess. The Gondwana supercontinent started to split up and Africa got separated from South America about 140 million years ago and opened up the South Atlantic Ocean. During the same time, India which was still attached to Madagascar got separated and paved the way for the Indian Ocean. India collided with Eurasia about 50 million years ago and slowly drifted away from Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica during the Cretaceous period.

Note: The name Gondwana is derived from two words - ‘Gonds’ a tribe in India and ‘wana’ meaning land of. The Gondwana land is divided into two sections - eastern half and western half.