Paleozoic plate kinematics during the Pannotia–Pangaea supercontinent cycle

Abstract

Abstract Three supercontinents have been suggested to have existed in the last 1 Gyr. The supercontinent status of Pangaea and Rodinia is undisputed. In contrast, there is ongoing controversy on whether Pannotia existed at all. Here, we test the hypothesis of a Pannotian supercontinent. Using first-order tectonic constraints, we reconstruct the Paleozoic kinematics of major continents relative to the East European Craton. Back-rotation from Pangaea results in a supercontinent constellation in the early Paleozoic corroborating the existence of Pannotia. The presented model explains first-order constraints for both the break-up of Pannotia and the subsequent assembly of Pangaea. The break-up of Pannotia comprises (1) the early Paleozoic opening of Iapetus II and in turn the Rheic Ocean, concomitant with the subduction of the Neoproterozoic Iapetus I Ocean and (2) the coeval opening of the Palaeo-Arctic Ocean, which separated Siberia from the North American Craton. The subsequent convergence of the North American Craton, Avalonia, Gondwana and Siberia with the East European Craton resulted in Paleozoic collisional orogenies at different plate boundary zones. The existence of Rodinia, Pannotia and Pangaea as pari passu supercontinents implicates two complete supercontinent cycles from Rodinia to Pannotia and from Pannotia to Pangaea in the Neoproterozoic and the Paleozoic, respectively.