Pannotia

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Pannotia, first described by Ian W. D. Dalziel in 1997, is a hypothetical supercontinent that existed from the Pan-African orogeny about 600 million years ago to the end of the Precambrian about 540 million years ago. It is also known as the Vendian supercontinent.<ref name="palaeos">Template:Cite web</ref>

About 750 mya, the previous supercontinent Rodinia rifted apart into three continents:

Protolaurasia (Protolaurasia broke apart and eventually reformed as Laurasia)
The continental craton of Congo
Protogondwana (all of Gondwana except the Congo craton and Atlantica)

Protolaurasia rotated southward toward the south pole. Protogondwana rotated counterclockwise. The Congo craton came between Protogondwana and Protolaurasia about 600 mya. This formed Pannotia. With so much landmass around the poles, evidence suggests that there were more glaciers during this time than at any other time in geologic history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pannotia was short-lived. The collisions that formed Pannotia were glancing collisions, and the continents composing Pannotia already had active rifting. By about 540 mya, or only about 60 million years after Pannotia formed, Pannotia disintegrated into four continents: Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana. Later, altered landmasses would recombine to form the most recent supercontinent, Pangaea.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Another term for the supercontinent that is thought to have existed at the end of Neoproterozoic time is "Greater Gondwanaland", suggested by Stern in 1994. This term recognizes that the supercontinent of Gondwana, which formed at the end of the Neoproterozoic, was once part of the much larger end-Neoproterozoic supercontinent.

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