Twisting Throttle Arctica
Arctica is poetic license used to describe very approximately the part of the world next in my sights for a motorcycle trip. It's the closest 'A' to 'A' description for that band of Arctic Circle countries that is northern Scandinavia, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
Arctica was formed around 2.5 billion years ago, from the cratons of the Canadian Shield (also known as the Kenorland continent), the Siberian cratons, and the Greenland and Wyoming cratons. It was roughly situated at the current North Pole at the time, hence the name.
Ur was the first continent, formed three billion years ago, followed by Arctica half a billion years later. Another half a billion years passed before Baltica and Atlantica emerged. The four continents roamed separately until, about one-and-a-half billion years ago, Arctica and Baltica collided with what is now eastern Antarctica to form Nena.
When Nena, Atlantica, and Ur came together one billion years ago, the supercontinent Rodinia was born. After 300 million years, the three landmasses separated for about 400 million years, then came back together in a new configuration, Pangea.
The continents gained mass over time because lighter material in the mantle had been slowly making its way to the surface, a process called "gravitational segregation." Through all of this, the original continents remained intact. But when Pangea came apart, Ur, Arctica, and Atlantica split up too. Parts of Ur went to Africa, Australia, and India, while Arctica became Canada, Greenland, and part of Siberia. Atlantica was divided between South America and Africa.
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