Mysteries Of The Rheic Ocean Beginning To Unravel

The Evolution of Rheic Ocean: From Avalonian-Cadomian Active Margin to Alleghenian-Variscan Collision addresses long-standing controversies surrounding the ocean's origin, paleogeography, and ultimate closure. The Rheic Ocean was one of the dominant oceans of the late Paleozoic. Approximately 420 million years ago it separated two large land masses: the supercontinent Gondwana, consisting of present-day South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica; and Laurussia, made up of North America, Greenland, Europe, and part of Asia. According to co-editor R. Damian Nance of Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA, a major challenge in resolving uncertainties about the Rheic Ocean is the large geographic area over which its vestiges were scattered. This publication, in Nance's view, addresses the challenge head-on and sets the stage for new discoveries. "This volume is a 'first' in a number of respects," said Nance. "It's the first to bring together a multi-disciplinary group of authors from 20 countries who report on aspects of the ocean spanning the full length of its former extent...