Before the last recognized supercontinent, the earth's landmasses were ripped apart and smashed back together to form super continents repeatedly. The universe started taking its shape 13.8 billion years ago. The universe was born with the big bang. All the energy was jammed into a very tiny point, this extremely dense point exploded with unimaginable force. Due to which matter started propelling outwards to make billions of galaxies. It is possible that before the big bang the universe was an infinite stretch of an ultra-hot dense material, persisting in a steady state but for some reason a huge explosion took place. Our universe emerged from a singularity, a point of infinite density and gravity, and before that space and time did not exist. This means that the big bang occurred at no place and no time. As we move backward the universe contracts. About 13.8 billion years ago the entire universe shrinks to the size of a single atom. This subatomic ball of everything is known as the singularity, inside which the laws of physics as we know them to cease to function. Stephen Hawkins said to the question "what was there before there was anything?" that he relies on the "No-boundary proposal" theory. In a lecture, he said: "Events before the big bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory and say that time began at the big bang.
Our solar system is nearly 4.6 billion years old. The solar system only had the sun a new-born star with dust particles swirling around it and rocks bumping into each other. The third planet from the sun began to take shape when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in. the earth was very hot, its temperature over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit with no air just carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapour. Slowly the earth started to cool down and pools of water grew as meteors fell on earth which had tiny droplets of water. These meteors bombarded for 20 million years. The moon came closer to earth due to which its gravity started causing huge tides on the ocean. Water had covered the whole planet and then scattered volcanic islands started appearing. Again meteors hit the earth containing minerals. This cataclysm of violent events jump-started life on earth. The earliest life form recorded dates back to 3.7 billion years, microbes left signals of their presence on rocks. The signals consisted of carbon molecule that is produced by living things. Human existence was logged 6 million years ago.
1.5 billion years ago Earth's crust began to push and pull. Gradually a vast supercontinent RODINIA takes shape. 750 million years ago Rodinia broke into three pieces. Then, about 600 million years ago those pieces came back together and formed a new supercontinent PANNOTIA. By about 550 million years ago, Pannotia broke up into several small fragments Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia, and a large piece of Gondwana. Little by little LAURASIA was another large continent that had formed by similar tectonic push and pulls joined with Gondwana to form PANGEA. Pangea contributed to the formation of the Atlantic Ocean by splitting up, the shifting continued and the Earth came into its present shape.
The continents are still moving today due to tectonic movements. Repeatedly due to these plate movements the landmasses on this planet joined together and split apart over billions of years.
So, how do you think the world stumbled upon these facts?
A few decades earlier nobody believed in the continental drift theory. Now geophysicists accept the fact. And they cannot answer that for how many more centuries, the world will remain in its present condition? Will the earth keep on shifting slowly or suddenly something drastic will happen the scientists and scholars only speculate the situation! Sometimes we read incredible pieces of news in the newspapers, researchers declared that settlements around the sea are seeping inside the sea or at times we read that mountain ranges of the Himalayas, The Andes, and the Pamir are shifting from their place. However, scientists claim that it is happening so gradually that process will take millions of years. The important point is whether the parts of the earth are moving or not? The process of earth moving is called the CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY. A microscopic look at the world map reveals that various islands which presently have a zigzag outline must have been a big circle. During earlier times, scientists used to think like this but they were not able to prove their thoughts scientifically. It was in 1915 that German meteorologist Alfred Wegener produced the current picture of how the prehistoric earth might have looked like with all its landmasses joined. At that time, he was ridiculed but today Wegener is considered to be the father of continental drift theory. He is regarded so great in this theory that some have suggested naming a crater on the moon after him. Some years ago, scientists proclaimed that Australia, South Asia, Africa, and South America must have been joined together. They derived this conclusion after conducting extensive research in the Antarctic. After researching on the above lines scientists concluded that many years ago all the continents must have been joined together and there must have existed only one ocean Payjiya.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Nobody can answer the question exactly. One can only hope that nothing traumatic happens by which the entire mankind may vanish. Although, we have seen that on at least 3 occasions the continents have collided to form one giant continent. If history is a guide, the current continents will coalesce once again to form another supercontinent 'AMASIA'.