The continents began to drift apart by the end of the period

The continents started to drift apart by the end of the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous Period started with the Earth’s land assembled essentially into two continents namely: Laurasia (in the north) and Gondwana (in the south). The two continents were nearly separated by Tethys seaway, and the many different segments of the 2 continents had began to rift apart. North America started to pull away from Eurasia. South America begun to split off from Africa. From which, the rest were also separating: India, Australia and Antarctica.

The continents drifted apart at the end of the Permian Period. At the end of the Permian, Pangea broke up into Gondwanaland and Laurasia; two large continents. Many theories exist as to why Pangea started to split apart. Scientist know that the end of the Permian was marked by a great mass extinction of species. The Siberian Traps is an example of massive lava flows that accompanied the break up of Pangea.

Generally travels west to east but often shifts to north and south