Collision Between Laurussia And Gondwana

Britains position at the margin of the collision between Laurussia and Gondwana, has meant that it has recorded much of this collision allowing us to reconstruct the history of the Pangaean supercontinent. Southern England in particular provides us with an abundance of evidence, which can be used to help recreate the lifecycle of this supercontinent.

520 Ma ago, much of the Earths continental landmasses exisited as two large continents, Gondwana and Laurentia, seprated by 7000km of the Iapetus Ocean. Northern Britain was located on Laurentia and Southern Britain located on Gondwana. The two were joined during the Caldeonian Orogeny. During this orogeny many small continents, which had previously broken off fron Gondwana, collided with Laurentia. Baltica, present day Scandinavia, had broken off first, followed by Avalonia which broke off and headed north. Both Baltica and Avalonia later collided with the margin of Laurentia. The collision created the Iapetus Suture- Laurussia(Old Red Continent). The Caldedonian orogeny lasted around 150 Ma occurring mainly between the late Cambrian (490 Ma ago) and the mid Devonian (390 Ma ago). The Iapetus Ocean separating the colliding plates was subducted during this orogeny.
By the late Paleaozoic (250 Ma ago) Gondwana had collided with Laurussia to create the supercontinent of Pangaea. This is known as the Variscan Orogeny, with its collisions taking place over about 100 Ma. The main effects on the UK took place in the late Carboniferous to early Permian (about 290 Ma ago). The event created the variscan mountain belt, which ran through Europe, the main trend of the fold axes is E-W, indicating a N-S