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| Climate
and Tectonics during the Devonian During the Devonian, there were two supercontinents, Gondwana and Euramerica, located relatively close to each other in the Southern Hemisphere. A vast ocean covered the rest of the globe, and the land was comparatively arid. Global climate was relatively warm and dry, and there was less of an equator-to-pole temperature gradient than today. There were no glaciers until the Late Devonian, when ice began to cover parts of the South Polar region. In the north, the formation of the continent of Euramerica continued from the Silurian. The northern branch of the Iapetus Ocean closed and the Late Caledonian (or Acadian) orogeny continued. The Euramerican continent, once called the “Old Red Continent” because of the color of Devonian-age rocks in Europe and North America, began to drift northward. Gondwana also drifted north. The formation of Euramerica and the closure of the oceans between Euramerica and Gondwana initiated the formation of Pangea, which continued into the early Mesozoic. |
Overview | Life in the Devonian Seas | Terrestrial Habitats Conquered
The Devonian Extinction | Climate and Tectonics during the Devonian
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