Pangea

I like to think about Pangea,
the single landmass on the Earth.
From the Kaapvaal Craton plate,
Pangea grew, grew outwards,
and created the supercontinent,
a puzzle with giant pieces fused,
fitting perfectly together.
Before tectonic forces
broke apart the continents we know today,
dinosaurs were roaming, long before
we human beings evolved.
Pangea endured, puzzle fully assembled,
for a hundred million years.
And Africa was the center.

The Johannesburg Dome,
sits on top of the Kaapvaal Craton plate,
the place where Pangea began,
where land on earth was ‘born’.
This is the place in Africa
that was centermost of the center
of the single continent Pangea.
The rolling hills of Johannesburg,
the craton ‘basement’ of greenstone exposed,
are the oldest landmass on the planet.

As the mantle heated, as it cooled,
as the crust broke up, as the magma welled
up through seams and cracks in the crust,
the motion of the plates began,
and the rifting of the continents commenced.
The landmass split and split
and rearranged itself
into present-day continents.
When the land was joined,
animals and plants spread freely,
but later, isolated populations
drove evolution and separated ancestors.
Earth is always changing,
our mother Gaia is alive!

One model of the future says
the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
will persist in their current widening,
bringing all the continents
back into one like Pangea.
Three hundred million years from now,
a brand new supercontinent,
dubbed Amasia from the pieces that will form it –
Australia, Asia, and the Americas.
Imagine it, if you can, the closing up
of the Pacific Ocean. The drifting back
of the giant puzzle-piece continents.

I like to think about the oneness of Pangea
meaning “all the Earth” in Greek.
Earth is alive, all is always changing.
I like to think about Amasia,
a future landmass of unity.
And the rolling hills of Johannesburg,
the oldest landmass on the planet;
Will they still be center? Will there still be humans?
What shall we hope and imagine
our species may have become?

©Susa Silvermarie 2026