Paleocontinent

A continent or continental fragment that existed in the geological past and was later dispersed, merged, or incorporated into another landmass.

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Pangaea: A late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic supercontinent that joined most of Earth's landmasses. Its breakup produced many continents and fragments studied as paleocontinents.
Plate tectonics: The theory that Earth's lithosphere is divided into moving plates whose interactions reshape the surface. It supplies the framework for reconstructing continental drift and assembly.
Continental crust: The relatively buoyant, silica-rich outer layer of Earth that forms the continents and their submerged margins. Paleocontinents consist chiefly of crust that can persist through repeated tectonic cycles.
Supercontinent cycle: The proposed long-term pattern of continental assembly into supercontinents and their subsequent breakup. Paleocontinents are the pieces and products of repeated assembly and breakup.
Rodinia: A hypothesized Neoproterozoic supercontinent assembled before the better-known supercontinent Pangaea. Its precise arrangement and breakup history remain subjects of competing reconstructions.
Laurasia: A northern landmass formed when Pangaea began to break apart, comprising much of present-day North America and Eurasia. It preserves the northern half of Pangaea's continental assembly.
Continental drift: The movement of continents across Earth's surface over geological time. Paleocontinents are reconstructed by tracing this motion through geological evidence.
Craton: A stable, ancient region of continental lithosphere that has resisted major deformation for billions of years. Cratons preserve the oldest cores from which paleocontinents are reconstructed.
Wilson cycle: The tectonic cycle in which ocean basins open, widen, and close as continents rift and collide. It links fragment separation to later incorporation into new landmasses.
Nuna: A proposed Paleoproterozoic supercontinent, also called Columbia, assembled roughly two billion years ago. Its boundaries and constituent cratons are difficult to establish from scattered evidence.