228 PANGAEA circum-Atlantic magmatic province, appeared at about the beginning of the Jurassic, as lavas poured forth along fractures that formed as Pangaea rifted apart An important aspect of Triassic Pangaea was the large number of microplates (also called displaced or suspect terranes) that were to accrete to the Pangaean nucleus during the Late Triassic and Jurassic These microplates were of variable size and can be identified by the sharp contrasts between their rocks and fossils and those of adjacent rocks They are fragments of other continents, island arcs, or pieces of oceanic crust that moved long distances to be accreted to continents More than 100 such terranes have been identified in the Cordilleran belt of western North America Numerous terranes in the Panthalassa Ocean moved eastwards to join the western ends of the Americas In eastern Tethys, as noted above, rifted slivers of northern Gondwana moved northwards to accrete to and form much of eastern and South-east Asia during the Late Triassic–Jurassic See Also Asia: Central; South-East Europe: The Urals Gondwanaland and Gondwana Mesozoic: Triassic North America: Northern Appalachians; Southern and Central Appalachians Palaeozoic: Carboniferous; Permian; End Permian Extinctions Terranes, Overview Further Reading Behrensmeyer AK, Damuth JD, DiMichele WA, et al (eds.) (1992) Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time Chicago: University of Chicago Press Embry AF, Beauchamp B, and Glass DJ (eds.) (1994) Pangea: Global Environments and Resources Memoir 17 Calgary: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Lucas SG (2000) The epicontinental Triassic, an overview Zentralblatt fuăr Geologie und Palaăontologie Teil I 8: 475 496 Marvin UB (1973) Continental Drift Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press Sherlock RL (1948) The Permo Triassic Formations London: Hutchinson’s Scientific and Technical Publications Smith AG and Briden JC (1977) Mesozoic and Cenozoic Palaeocontinental Maps Cambridge: Cambridge Univer sity Press Tarling D and Tarling M (1971) Continental Drift Garden City: Doubleday Ziegler PA (1989) Evolution of Laurussia Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers