Seafloor Crusts

Seafloor crusts are predominantly made up of the intruded volcanic lava called basalt. By continuing to flip back in time through the time periods shown at left you will notice that the coloured seafloor stripes for each of the Cenozoic and Mesozoic models are progressively removed. When moving back in time, the intruded volcanic lava represented by the various coloured stripes is again simply returned to the mantle, from where it came from, and each remaining tectonic plate is reassembled together along each of the mid-ocean-ridges. Likewise, the ocean waters progressively reduce in surface area and volume back in time as the water (and atmospheric gases) are also returned to the mantle.

By the time you reach the Triassic Period (some 200 million years ago) all of the coloured seafloor crusts, plus a percentage of the ocean waters, have been returned to the mantle and each of the white coloured continental shelves and marine sedimentary basins merge to form a global network of shallow seas.

Moving further back in time, when you reach the Permian Period (some 250 million years ago) the continental shelf and marine basin sediments have been returned to the lands, where they came from, and all of the modern oceans have closed. It can be seen that each of the modern continents then assemble precisely to form the ancient Pangaean supercontinent on an ancient Earth at about 50% of the present Earth radius.

Note: for each of the Late Cretaceous through to Late Triassic models you will notice a number of white, east-west orientated, gaps in the geology of northern India and Tibet. This was necessary during model construction to allow for pre-Himalaya basin formation. It was not possible to unfold the complexly folded Himalaya sediments shown on the CGMW & UNESCO map. Disregard these gaps.