A supercontinent in which all current continents were once part is called what?

• A. Pangaea
• B. Gondwana
• C. Laurasia
• D. Rodinia

Answer: (A)

Pangaea is the name for the supercontinent that included nearly all of today’s continental landmasses. The idea behind this concept is that Earth's continents aren’t fixed; they move over geological time due to plate tectonics. Pangaea formed hundreds of millions of years ago when earlier landmasses collided, creating a single, vast supercontinent, and later broke apart to form the continents we know now.

The other names refer to different ancient configurations that didn’t contain all current continents at once. Rodinia existed even earlier, long before the current arrangement of landmasses. Laurasia was the northern portion of the later assembly that would split into continents like North America and Eurasia, while Gondwana was the southern portion that included Africa, South America, India, Australia, and Antarctica. None of these combined all present-day continents, whereas Pangaea did, making it the correct reference for a single landmass that once included all the continents.