Last billion years

Last billion years of Earth's tectonic and climatic history

Major Orogenies	Major Ocean Rifting Major Sea-level Rise¹	Major Glaciations²
Andean/Cordilleran and Alpine/Himalayan (0-40 Ma)		Late Cenozoic: North America, Antarctica, Eurasia, Greenland (0-25 Ma)
	N. Atlantic Ocean Tejas (65 Ma)	Climatic cooling begins (70 Ma)
	Atlantic/Indian³ Zuni (80 Ma)
		Deserts worldwide (200-250 Ma)
Appalachian/Uralian⁴ (260-320 Ma)	Absaroka⁵ (280 Ma) Kaskaskia (350 Ma)	Gondwana: Africa, South America, India, Australia, Antarctica, Arabia (260-360 Ma)
Acadian/Caledonian⁶ (360-400 Ma)
Taconic: N. America (440-460 Ma)	Tippecanoe (440 Ma)	Andean-Saharan: South America, Africa, Arabia (420-450 Ma)
	Iapetus Ocean⁷ Sauk (520 Ma)
Avalonian: N. America⁸ (600-700 Ma) Grenville: N. America⁹ (900-1000 Ma)		Late Proterozoic: Africa, Australia, Greenland, China, North America, Europe (600-950 Ma)

Ma = millions of years before present; all ages approximate.
Not to scale. Based on many sources.

Notes:

Major marine transgressions on North America with peak date.
Except as noted, Earth's climate has been temperate to tropical.
Breakup of Pangaea, rapid sea-floor spreading.
Creation of Pangaea, the latest supercontinent.
Characterized by cyclothems = frequent sea-level fluctuation.
Collision of North America and Europe.
Breakup of supercontinent, rapid sea-floor spreading.
Creation of supercontinent Rodinia.
Creation of supercontinent Kanatia.

Selected references

Caputo, M.V. and Crowell, J.C. 1985. Migration of glacial centers across Gondwana during Paleozoic Era. Geological Society America, Bulletin 96, p. 1020-1036.
Chumakov, N.M. and Elston, D.P. 1989. The paradox of Late Proterozoic glaciations at low latitudes. Episodes 12, p. 115-120.
Cloud, P. 1988. Oasis in Space. Norton, New York, 508 p.
Habicht, J.K.A. 1979. Paleoclimate, paleomagnetism, and continental drift. American Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Studies in Geology No. 9.
Hambrey, M.J. and Harland, W.B. (editors) 1981. Earth's pre-Pleistocene glacial record. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 1004 p.
Harland, W.B. 1983. The Proterozoic glacial record. In Medaris, L.G. Jr. et al. (eds.), Proterozoic geology: Selected papers from an international Proterozoic symposium. Geological Society America, Memoir 161, p. 279-288.
Joachimski, M.M., von Bitter, P.H. and Buggisch, W. 2006. Constraints on Pennsylvanian glacioeustatic sea-level changes using oxygen isotopes of conodont apatite. Geology 34, p. 277-280.
Leather, J., Allen, P.A., Brasier, M.D. and Cozzi, A. 2002. Neoproterozoic snowball Earth under scrutiny: Evidence from the Fiq glaciation of Oman. Geology 30/10, p. 891-894.
Murphy, J.B. and Nance, R.D. 1989. Model for the evolution of the Avalonian-Cadomian belt. Geology 17, p. 735-738.
Park, R.G. 1992. Plate kinematic history of Baltica during the Middle to Late Proterozoic: A model. Geology 20, p. 725-728.
Soreghan, G.S. and Giles, K.A. 1999. Amplitudes of Late Pennsylvanian glacioeustasy. Geology 27/3, p. 255-258.
Vaslet, D. 1990. Upper Ordovician glacial deposits in Saudi Arabia. Episodes 13, p. 147-161.
Young, G.M. 1995. Are Neoproterozoic glacial deposits preserved on the margins of Laurentia related to the fragmentation of two supercontinents? Geology 23:153-156.