Into The Breach

1100 MYA

Due to the brevity of human life, we struggle to grasp the movement of continents and ocean crusts. From the perspective of deep time, we can feel Earth move under our feet.

Earth is restless. Major global rifting occurs in a very short amount of geologic time. Great valleys open within the continental shield, rivers pour in and new oceans form. Plate collisions fold Earth, and huge mountain chains rise. Volumes of magma spew from the deep.

Continents are the raised portions of tectonic plates.

Topography is as mountainous and deeply gorged under the oceans as it is on land. (Photography courtesy National Center for Atmospheric Research)

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