Rodinia

Rodinia was a proposed Neoproterozoic supercontinent that is believed to have existed between about 1.3 and 0.9 billion years ago. The name comes from the Russian word rodina, meaning homeland, and the concept was developed in the late 20th century to explain patterns of continental rocks and geologic events in the Neoproterozoic.

Reconstructions of Rodinia vary, but most models place a core comprising Laurentia (the ancestral North American craton), Baltica, and Siberia. Additional landmasses such as Australia, India, and parts of Africa and South America are commonly included, with the precise positions and connections remaining a matter of debate. The assembly of Rodinia is thought to have occurred during the Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic, with the supercontinent beginning to break apart in the late Neoproterozoic, roughly 750 to 600 million years ago.

Evidence for Rodinia includes paleomagnetic data from old rocks, structural correlations between cratons, and the distribution of Neoproterozoic volcanic and sedimentary sequences. The model has also been linked to global climate events, notably Neoproterozoic glaciations, which some researchers interpret as indicating a global climate transition during Rodinia's later stages. The fragmentation of Rodinia produced rifted margins and contributed to the formation of later landmasses, including Gondwana, and eventually the assembly of Pannotia and Pangea in succeeding geological eras.

Rodinia remains a subject of ongoing research and debate; some scientists question the existence of a single global supercontinent in this interval, proposing alternative configurations such as Nuna/Columbia. The precise configuration and timing continue to be refined as new dating and paleomagnetic data become available.