The Earth’s plates move just a few inches a year—about as fast as a person’s fingernails grow. This continental pattern predicts that 250 million years from now, a new supercontinent will be born.
Pangea broke up starting along the line that would become the mid-Atlantic ridge when the existing fracture at the southern end of South America/Africa widened and opened the rift like a zipper. As these new continents moved apart, they pushed and folded up the Earth’s crust and created great mountain ranges.