Opening of the North Atlantic Ocean Plateau (off Norway), Faroe-Shetland Basin, Hebrides, Outer Moray Firth and Denmark. The supercontinent known as Pangea existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras and began to rift around 200 million years ago. Pangea had three major phases of breakup. The first major phase began in the Early-Middle Jurassic, taking place between North America and Africa. The second major phase of breakup began in the Early Cretaceous. The South Atlantic Ocean opened around 140 million years ago as Africa separated from South America, and about the same time, India separated from Antarctica and Australia, forming the central Indian Ocean.
Geology of Arizona The subduction of the Farallon Plate beneath western North America remains a poorly understood event, although new seismic and computer tomography modeling is shedding light on the event. As the oceanic plate subsided under North America, it generated partial melting conditions that formed volcanoes on the surface in California and Arizona. Volcanic activity commenced in western Arizona around 205 million years ago, kicking off the Nevadan orogeny, which lasted until 145 million years ago, spanning the Triassic into the Jurassic. Granite intrusions 190 million years ago enriched many veins with minerals and generated copper porphyry gold deposits. Bisbee, Arizona, 92