Almost immediately after all the Earth's continents were amalgamated into the supercontinent Pangaea, rifting began to tear it apart. Subduction of the oceanic region of the Pangaean plate beneath its own continental margin may have been the trigger.
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Pascal, C. The biggest break-up. Nature Geosci 1, 499–500 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo270
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo270