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Exploring the history of Baltica: What hidden landmasses did this ancient continent encounter?
Baltica is an ancient ancient continent formed in the Paleoproterozoic. Today it roughly constitutes part of northern Europe, including northern and western Eurasia. This area is more than three billion years old. The core of Bartika is called the East European Craton and was once part of the supercontinent Rodinia 200 million years ago. Delving deeper into its tectonic history, we can discover how this mysterious continent met and collided with other surrounding landmasses.
Construction history
The formation of Bartika began about 2 to 1.7 billion years ago, a process involving the collision of three ancient Aktian-Proterozoic landmasses: Finland-Scandinavia (including Exposed Baltic Shield), Sama (Ukrainian Shield and Voronezh Mountains) and Volga-Uralia (covered by recent sediments). The connecting gap was subsequently reactivated during the Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic Era, and around 750 to 600 million years ago, Bartica and Laurentia rotated clockwise together and drifted from the equator to the South Pole, influenced by Cree The impact of the Austrian Ice Age.
The initial breakup between the two continents was marked by the Egersund dyke at 650 Ma. At 600 Ma before and after, they began to rotate 180 degrees relative to each other, thus starting the formation of the Iapetus Ocean.
Border structure
As a very ancient landmass, Bartica has a well-preserved thick craton at its core. The current boundaries were formed by mergers with other younger landmasses, and these deformed seams do not represent the original extent of Bartika. For example, the curved boundary of the northern Urals was deformed during the Late Permian and Early Triassic by the eruption of the Siberian Trap. Baltica's western edge is the Caledonide massif, which extends from the Scandinavian mountains north to the Sea of Barends and Svalbard.
North edge
By about 555 Ma, during the Timanian Orogeny, the northern margin of Baltica became an active margin, and as a series of continental blocks expanded, Baltica expanded northward, connecting the Timan-Pechora basin, the northernmost Ural Mountains and Novaya Zemlya. During this period of expansion, Bartika also had certain connections with parts of North America such as the Alaska-Chukoteka, Alexandria, North Sila, and East Klamath lands.
South edge
From at least 1.8 billion years ago to 800 million years ago, the southwestern edge of Bartica was connected to the Amazon continent, while the southeastern edge was connected to the West African Craton. Between 110 and 90 million years ago, Baltica and Amazon collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia in Grenville-Sveknowie-Swensa Oroji. After Rodinia completely broke apart, Baltica became an independent landmass, which lasted about 200 million years.
West edge
The Western Gneiss Region of western Norway consists of 1650 to 950 Ma schists covered by terrestrial and marine heterogeneities that were transferred from Laurentia to Baltica. These heterogeneous objects were added to Baltica during the closure of the Iiapetus Sea between 430 and 410 Ma. This process shows that the base of Baltica was submerged to a depth of about 120 kilometers during the initial collision, and the presence of these microdiamonds further indicates how deep Baltica was after its collision with Laurentia.
Eastern edge
The eastern edge, Uralio Logi, stretches 2,500 kilometers from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic to the Aral Sea. This region records at least two collisions with intramarine island arcs, culminating in the Kazakhstan-Siberian collision in the formation of Pangia. According to the calculation of geological time, the current Ural Mountains also reflect Bartica's many interactions with other landmasses in the early period, which further reveals the expansion and evolution of Bartica.
From the history of Bartica, we can see how this ancient continent continued to meet and collide with hidden land masses, eventually forming the present-day North West Eurasia region. This makes people think about how the future tectonic changes of the earth will affect human life and the environment.
