Neoproterozoic Era · Tonian Period
Earth 750 Million Years Ago: Rodinia Breaks Apart
Earth 750 million years ago: the supercontinent Rodinia splits as the Pacific Ocean is born, just before the Snowball Earth glaciations.
Spin it in 3D and move through timeApproximate: the continents of 540 million years ago, carried back to this time with the PALEOMAP plate model.
Map: Ancient maps: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs (Scotese & Wright 2018), CC BY 4.0 · Natural Earth.
By 750 million years ago Rodinia was tearing apart. A rift between western North America and Australia–Antarctica opened the ocean that would become the Pacific, and floods of lava erupted along the new edges.
Breaking a supercontinent into smaller pieces exposes more coastline and fresh rock to rain. Weathering that rock draws carbon dioxide out of the air, and many scientists think this helped cool the planet towards the Snowball Earths that began about 717 million years ago.
Life was still small and simple in the seas. The globe shows the continents carried back from 540 million years ago with the PALEOMAP plate model, so their shapes are approximate.
Events of the time
Snowball Earth
700 million years ago · Flinders Ranges, Australia
Glacial rocks laid down near the equator, now in Australia and elsewhere, show ice reached the tropics twice, about 717–660 and 650–635 million years ago.
▶ Watch it happen on the globe
Part of the Origin of Life & Proterozoic Eon.