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Thecodontion - Supercontinent lyrics



Tracks



01. Gyrosia

Instant abiogenesis when Gyrosia formed
Microbes near hydrotermal vents
Geochemically active environment
Rounded tubular cells on a fossilized beach

02. Vaalbara

Lithostigraphic structural arrays reveal
The supercontinent's existence often disputed
A three fold stratigraphic similarity leads
To reconstructions of ancient latitudes

Extensional faults during felsic volcanism
Both coeval with impact layers
Paleomagnetic data showing igneous complexes
Of what could have once been part of the same

A pattern found in Precambrian cover sequences
Granite greenstone belts show evidence
Of meteorite impacts into spherules of glass
Akin to lunar soil carbon chondrules

Traced in the membrane organelles of eukaryotes
Coded in the blue algae of Cyanophyta
Molecular clocks and fossil photosynthesis
Biomarkers have found their way through rocks

To discover the missing Archaean link
Between twin transcontinental basins
Two cratons drifting apart from each other
Across four billions years wide oceans

03. Ur

Protolithic shields once close together
Near each other until the Mesozoic break-up
Younger continental assemblage
Three of a kind now far apart

Up to the Siderian era range
When Ur joins Nena and Atlantica
On early Earth's archaic tectonics
Three worlds collide

The Zimgarn hypothesis surfaces
Extensive carbonate platforms develop
Differing magmatic signatures
Primordial magnetism affected

Expanding continuing stabilisation
Intracontinental within the southern margin
Ur, the longest-lived landmass
Yet it remains hopelessly obscure

04. Kenorland

Kenorland located at lower latitudes
Until tectonic magma plume rifting
The Baltic Shield over the equator
Joined to the Canadian forming an unity

Its nexus near the Fennoscandian shield
Transition point to two-layer core
Findings of earlier continents indicate
Contradicting adjustment theories

During the Siderian and Rhyacian periods
Protracted fissures manifested
By mafic dikes and sedimentary basins
Bimodal deep convection splitting common

No longer a supercontinent, a divide
At two-point-fortyfive Gya, a breakup
Speculation based on the margin
Spatial arrangements of Laurentia

Drifting assemblies flow together
Toward the subsequent amalgamation
Southwest and northwest portions
Of the Canadian Shield at opposite ends

Temperatures plummeting abyssal
Banded iron formations indicating anoxia
Nevertheless, photosynthesis still unbound
Stabilizing climates new levels

05. Lerova

Surface water moving east to west
Warming up from the sunlight
Vespertine edge warmer than austral
Countless seasons of monsoons

06. Nuna

Proto-cratons containing
The Earth's continental blocks
Welded, amalgamated
Sutured with orogens

Twelve-nine-hundred kilometers
Along the north-south axis
Four-eight-hundred kilometers
Along the east-west axis

Mountain range formations
South America was rotated
Edges extending into
The brinks of Scandinavia

Outgrowth via accretion
Key continental margins
Forming a magmatic belt
Along southern limits

Anorogenic activity
Forming anorthosite suits
Marked by the emplacement of
Igneous northern hemisphere

Continental configuration
Based on radiating dike swarms
Also known as Columbia
Nuna, completed by global collisions

07. Rodinia

Her womb was barren
Uncolonized dry land
No inhabitants on her interior rings
Ultraviolet light hindering life

Rainfalls increase volcanic rocks weather
Low threshold triggers extreme glaciation
Tectonic activity nourishing marine environment
Neoproterozoic orogeny unknown longitude

Rifts spread to warmer litosphere
Ocean floors come up
Eustatic water levels rise
Parallel shallower seas

08. Tethys

Continuous belt circling around the Earth
Slightly above the Equator
Currents running differently
Ocean floor buckling under

09. Laurasia-Gondwana

Zero parallel location during the Cambrian
Drifts assemble and break her up
Silurian volcanism reforming Laurasia
They are coiled close together

Iapetus rafts terranes to be added back
Neo-Tethys pushes them across the Equator
Microcontinents and blocks amalgamate
Unknown if they originated on her shores

Lycopods invade and dominate the tropics
Terrestrial pteridophytes colonize rapidly
Baragwanathia flora occurs in two strata
Replaced by Archaeopteris and giant moss

Rheic closure, ocean currents reroute
Gondwana rotates clockwise, Australia shifts
South to more temperate coordinates
Coal-forming forests form from ice melting

Now petrified voltziaelan conifers evolve
Extinct glossopterids reach peak diversity
Plant-vertebrate-insect ecosystem results
Hexapods codevelop, therapsids arrive

10. Pangaea

Plate tectonics paramount in the formation
Of later landmasses and habitats
Lifeforms adapt to chasms and earthquakes
Shaping the various stages of Pangaea

Traversodonts thrived where others struggled
Spore plants replaced by gymnosperms
Few marine animals known to exist
Ammonites, brachiopods, massive reefs

Lystrosaurus, Cynognathus and ferns fossils
Mesosaurus found in coastal regions
Distribution ranging from polar to equator
Glacial deposits of the same age and structure

Drastic climate change after reconfiguration
Warm tropical air and water transfer halted
Atmospheric circumpolar currents
Antarctica cools down to a frigid state

Deterioration of the northern section
Contributed to the Permian Extinction
Beetles and cicadas wiped away
Acid oceans dissolving benthic species

11. Panthalassa

Hemisphere-sized ocean
Gigantic single-celled organisms
Trade winds create westward flows
Four currents of subtropical gyre