How did the continents form?

As Earth's continental masses grew bigger, moving all the while, they shifted in relation to each other and coalesced into different arrangements over hundreds of millions of years. The current configuration of continents is just a temporary one in the eons-long process of plate tectonics.

Three times during the past billion years, drifting landmasses have merged to form super continents.

In between these stages of continental drift, they split into smaller land masses before before recombining again. Scientists predict that a new supercontinent, Pangaea Ultima, will eventually form, 250 million years from now.