Archaeological discoveries

Where did the name Pangaea come from?

The name "Pangaea" was coined in 1912 by the German meteorologist and geologist Alfred Wegener, who proposed the theory of continental drift. He combined the Greek words "pan" (meaning "all" or "entire") and "Gaia" (meaning "Earth" or "land"). Thus, "Pangaea" means "all land" and refers to the supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, before it began to break up and form the continents we know today.