Which Form 8854 Preceding 2023-2024

In 1912, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener proposed the idea of continental drift. He stated that the continents were not fixed, but instead were moving. While at the time he wasn't entirely sure how or why this happened, we now understand that tectonic plates cause it over an incredibly long period of time. For most of Earth's history, continents have joined together, split apart, and smashed back together. Our modern-day world is just a snapshot; Earth has always been changing, a process going back thousands of millions of years. At different periods of Earth's history, the continents would sometimes clash together, forming a landmass known as a supercontinent, like Pangaea. But before Pangaea, there were ancient continents of the Precambrian globe, a time spanning billions of years before multicellular life even developed. The formation of the supercontinents greatly influenced modern geography, which in turn influenced modern civilization. So, let's take a look at these continents of the past. Vol Bora, while only a theory as of now, is theorized to have been the very first continent, forming around 3.6 billion years ago, a billion years after the formation of Earth. It was a supercontinent for the time, since it was the only continent. Since it is so far back, very little is known about this theorized landmass. It is believed to have consisted of parts of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and a small mass in Northwest Australia. Her Her is the oldest confirmed continent in Earth's history. At the time, three billion years ago, it was the largest continent on the planet. Just like Vol Bora, it was the only one. Any other land was scattered as small islands across the global ocean. But since it contained most of the land on Earth, it was technically a supercontinent for the time,...