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Contents of 12.9 What were the consequences of plate motion over geologic time?

• Plate tectonics explains the history of continents and ocean basins by linking rocks and structures with plate-boundary processes.
• Paleozoic mountain ranges, such as the Appalachians, formed along convergent boundaries. Continent-continent collisions along several plate boundaries assembled Pangea by the end of the Paleozoic.
• Pangea rifted during the Mesozoic and modern continents dispersed to their present positions since then. Rift valleys formed in eastern N. America prior to the formation of the oldest Atlantic Ocean.

12.9 What were the consequences of plate motion over geologic time?