Did you know that mountain ranges now separated by the Atlantic Ocean were once part of a single, massive mountain system?
🏔️ The Appalachian Mountains (North America), the Scottish Highlands, mountains in Northern Ireland, parts of Greenland, Scandinavia, and northwestern Africa all belonged to the same ancient mountain belt formed around 400–300 million years ago.
🌍 This enormous range developed during the time of the supercontinent Pangaea, when continental collisions created what geologists refer to as the Central Pangaean Mountains.
🧠 In Europe, this mountain-building event is known as the Caledonian Orogeny; in North America, it is called the Appalachian Orogeny — different regional names for the same geological process recorded on separate continents today.
🔬 Geological studies published by research institutions and universities in the United States and Europe, and summarized by sources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica and National Geographic, show that rocks from these regions:
- Are of similar age
- Share nearly identical mineral compositions
- Display matching tectonic structures
🌊 When Pangaea began to break apart, the Atlantic Ocean opened, splitting this once-continuous mountain range and distributing its remnants across multiple continents.
📏 Scientists estimate that this ancient mountain system was comparable in height to today’s Himalayas, before hundreds of millions of years of erosion reduced its elevation.
🧩 The alignment of these mountain ranges is considered one of the strongest pieces of evidence for continental drift and plate tectonics, a cornerstone of modern Earth science.
