From supercontinent to superplate: Late Paleozoic Pangea's inner deformation suggests it was a short-lived superplate

The supercontinent cycle explains how landmasses amalgamate into supercontinents that dismember after a ~ 100 Myr tenure in quasi-periodic manner. Supercontinents are thought to be rigid superplates whose formation controls many of the Earth's secular variations, from long-term climate trends global mantle circulation. Pangea, latest continental superplate, formed ~330 Ma, began rift ~240 finally broke-up ~200 is generally considered template for all previous supercontinents. existence Pangea as superplate at Ma inconsistent with: (i) kinematic constraints continent-continent collision became progressively younger westwards and it only ended early Permian times its westernmost side; (ii) widespread ‘post-orogenic’ magmatism core hot high-pressure metamorphism Paleotethys; (iii) paleomagnetic database shows paleolatitudinal overlaps between participating continents, significant vertical axis rotations 330 270 which suggests >1500 km shortening extension. Here I present tectonic reconstruction reconciles geological discrepancies. In this model, initial amalgamation landmass, comprising plates kept on interacting each other asthenosphere during late Carboniferous (320–270 Ma) instead being plate. After concomitant with plate reorganization, established brief period <70 Myr. This might be, following most recent models, too short control