Pannotia

Pannotia (from Greek: , "all", , "south"; meaning "all southern land"), also known as Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian during the Pan-African orogeny (650–500 Ma) and broke apart 560 Ma with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. Pannotia formed when Laurentia was located adjacent to the two major South American cratons, Amazonia and Río de la Plata. The opening of the Iapetus Ocean separated Laurentia from Baltica, Amazonia, and Río de la Plata.

Piper 1976 was probably the first to propose a Proterozoic supercontinent preceding Pangaea, today known as Rodinia. At that time he simply referred to it as "the Proterozoic super-continent", but much later he named this "symmetrical crescent-shaped analogue of Pangaea" 'Palaeopangaea' and still insists there is neither a need nor any evidences for Rodinia or its daughter supercontinent Pannotia or a series of other proposed supercontinents since Archaean times.

The existence of a Late Proterozoic supercontinent, much different from Pangaea, was, nevertheless, first proposed by McWilliams 1981 based on paleomagnetic data and the break-up of this supercontinent around 625–550 Ma was documented by Bond, Nickeson & Kominz 1984. The reconstruction of Bond et al. is virtually identical to that of Dalziel 1997 and others.

Another term for the supercontinent that is thought to have existed at the end of Neoproterozoic time is "Greater Gondwanaland", suggested by Stern 1994. This term recognizes that the supercontinent of Gondwana, which formed at the end of the Neoproterozoic, was once part of the much larger end-Neoproterozoic supercontinent.

Pannotia was named by Powell 1995, based on the term "Pannotios" originally proposed by Stump 1987 for "the cycle of tectonic activity common to the Gondwana continents that resulted in the formation of the supercontinent."Young 1995 proposed renaming the older Proterozoic supercontinent (now known as Rodinia) "Kanatia", the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word from which the name 'Canada' is derived, while keeping the name Rodinia for the latter Neoproterozoic supercontinent (now known as Pannotia). Powell, however, objected to this renaming and instead proposed Stump's term for the latter supercontinent.

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