A billion or so years ago, Antarctica and North America were connected in the supercontinent Rodinia, according to an analysis of ancient rocks from East Antarctica, northern Michigan and Texas.
Staci Loewy at California State University in Bakersfield and her colleagues studied rocks from the Coats Land block of East Antarctica and compared the results with data on rocks from the North American midcontinent rift system. These are roughly 1.1 billion years old and have similar geological properties. The team found that the rocks have the same composition of lead isotopes. The results suggest that the Coats Land block was connected to ancient North America west of present-day Texas.
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The north–south connection. Nature 476, 254 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/476254c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/476254c
