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Pangaea separated because of heat buildup. The mantle underneath the thin oceanic crust (several miles thick) surrounding Pangaea lost more heat to the earth's surface than the mantle underneath Pangaea itself (tens of miles thick). This temperature difference altered the convection currents in the mantle and resulted in upward convection underneath Pangaea, which eventually caused it to break into separate pieces along newly-formed divergent boundaries.

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What was the land mass that made up all the continents called?

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The single continent that split into two continents called Gondwana and Laurasia is Pangaea. Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed about 335-175 million years ago, before eventually breaking apart into these two landmasses which later drifted to form the continents we know today.


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