Resilient Earth

Abstract

Continental drift has dramatically reshaped the face of Earth during the Phanerozoic, causing significant impact on climate by affecting ocean and atmospheric currents. As the continents move, warm ocean currents can be rerouted or blocked altogether, keeping tropical waters from warming colder regions. This can cause changes in precipitation, desertification and weathering patterns. In turn, these changes may affect the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is probably not a coincidence that during the periods of coldest climate, all of the land masses were gathered into single giant super-continents; Rodinia during the Cryogenian Period (850-635 mya, snowball Earth) and Pangaea during the Permo-Carboniferous Ice age (350-260 mya).