Based on these and other separate lines of evidence, there is general agreement that prior to 200 million years ago, the continents of the world were joined into a single land mass, called Pangaea, surrounded by a global ocean, Panthalassa. The break up of Pangea began with the separation of North America as the proto-North Atlantic opens up and the northern super-continent, Laurasia, separates from the southern Gondwanaland, opening a new sea way, the Teethes. Later, Antarctica, Australia, and India separate from Africa and South America. 

Some 70 million years ago, South America separates from Africa. As time goes on, the North Atlantic continues to widen. Africa is moving into Europe and India is headed towards Asia. Antarctica and Australia have moved southward together. The major changes in the last 70 million years include the reconnection of North America and Asia via Alaska, the collision between India and Asia, and the eastward migration of Autralalia. Even as you read this, North and South America are moving westward, albeit at differing rates. Eventually the connection between them will be severed again. Africa will continue to move northward into Europe and to break up along its eastern margin. Australia will continue to move northeast while India wedges Asia apart. 

The last series of continental migrations began some 200 million years ago, when the dinosaurs still reigned supreme. There is little doubt that the present geography is but a transient stage in the history of the earth, and that continental drift and ocean floor spreading will continue as long as the earth remains an active planet, certainly for billions of years to come. 

It is a tribute to the power of the plate tectonics theory that it is able to explain these many apparently unrelated features and events as a logical, easily understandable set of ideas. This model is so simple, elegant and explains so many things that it is surprising that it was not accepted earlier. It may seem difficult to understand why geologists were so slow to accept this model and fought its acceptance so hard and for so long. While such behavior may seem reactionary and stodgy, we should remember that it is this very conservatism that insures that all new scientific ideas must fit into the existing data and they must provide better explanations than the ideas they replace before they become accepted. It also tends to insure that half-baked and speculative or just plainly wrong ideas will not become incorporated into science.