Central Pangean Mountains

The Central Pangean Mountains were a big mountain range in the middle of the supercontinent Pangaea during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods. They formed when the landmasses of Euramerica (also called Laurussia) and Gondwana came together to make Pangaea.

At their tallest during the early Permian period, the Central Pangean Mountains were as high as today’s Himalayas. Today, parts of these old mountains can be seen in places like the Appalachian Mountains and Ouachita Mountains in North America, the Atlas Mountains and Anti-Atlas Mountains in Africa, and the Bohemian Massif and Massif Central in Europe.

Many events helped build the Central Pangean Mountains, including the Acadian, Caledonian, Alleghenian, Mauritanide, and Variscan orogenies. The eastern part of this range was called the Variscan Mountains. These mountains show us how Earth’s continents have moved and changed over millions of years.

Formation and decline

The Central Pangean Mountains were formed when two large landmasses, Euramerica and northern Gondwana, bumped into each other. This happened during the Carboniferous period about 340 million years ago and ended by the start of the Permian period around 295 million years ago. At their tallest, these mountains were as high as the Himalayas today.

During the Permian period, weather and erosion made the mountains smaller. Their peaks became about half as tall, and deep valleys formed. By the time of the Middle Triassic period, the mountains were much smaller. By the early Jurassic period, around 200 million years ago, what was left of these mountains in Western Europe were just a few high spots surrounded by deep ocean basins.

Climate

The Central Pangean Mountains helped create conditions that allowed large amounts of coal to form in the late Carboniferous period. The mountains caused heavy rain all year, which helped preserve the peat that turns into coal.

Later, during the early-mid Permian period, these mountains sat under the path of heavy rains. Evidence from loess in France shows that parts of these mountains might have had glaciers, even though they were near the equator. As the landmass of Pangaea moved north, the mountains blocked rains from reaching the areas to their north, changing the landscape from wet coal swamps to drier areas and helping form large salt deposits in Europe.