Question

Which piece of evidence suggests that Africa and South America formed Gondwanaland 200 million years ago?

coal fields
a shared ocean
folded mountains
land formations created by glaciers

Answer 1

Answer:

Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago. The continent eventually split into landmasses we recognize today: Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula.

The familiar continents of today are really only a temporary arrangement in a long history of continental movement. Landmasses on Earth are in a constant state of slow motion, and have, at multiple times, come together as one. These all-in-one supercontinents include Columbia (also known as Nuna), Rodinia, Pannotia and Pangaea (or Pangea).

Gondwana was half of the Pangaea supercontinent, along with a northern supercontinent known as Laurasia.

The creation of Gondwana

Gondwana's final formation occurred about 500 million years ago, during the late Ediacaran Period. By this time, multicellular organisms had evolved, but they were primitive: The few fossils left from this period reveal segmented worms, frond-like organisms and round creatures shaped like modern jellyfish. 

In this world, Gondwana conducted its slow grind to supercontinent status. Bits and pieces of the future supercontinent collided over millennia, bringing together what are now Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica. 

This early version of Gondwana joined with the other landmasses on Earth to form the single supercontinent Pangaea by about 300 million years ago. About 280 million to 230 million years ago, Pangaea started to split. Magma from below the Earth's crust began pushing upward, creating a fissure between what would become Africa, South America and North America.

As part of this process, Pangaea cracked into a northernmost and southernmost supercontinent. The northern landmass, Laurasia, would drift north and gradually split into Europe, Asia and North America.