Growth and breakup of supercontinents and evolution of oceans and continental margins during the global tectonic megacycles

Due to the westward-directed off-centre rotation of the spinning Earth around the gravitational centre of the Earth-Moon (-Sun) system the lower mantle should be displaced eastwards in relation to the upper mantle-crust system (principle of hypocycloid gearing). In consequence, the shape of the Pacific is displaced eastwards above gravity anomalies of the lower mantle in relation to the Earth's crust (once around the globe in 200 to 250 my; 20 to 16 cm/y East drift), thus causing the Global Tectonic Megacycles (Oceanic/Wilson Cycle, Orogenic Cycle, Cycle of the Collisional Mountain Belt, etc.)The continents migrate westwards around the shape of the Pacific in the N and S. They collide sequentially W of the Pacific continuously adding segments to a collisional mountain belt, that becomes older towards the W (zip fastener principle) and since the Permian has lapped some 1 1/3 times around the cratonic nucleus of Laurasia in the form of a spiral (explanation for lateral continental growth and the cyclical repetition of orogenic events for a certain continental margin). Following half an E drift lapping of the Earth's crust by the shape of the Pacific, the Pacific appears again in the W. In the Mediterranean/Caribbean setting (tongue of the Pacific) the continents of the N and S hemispheres that had previously collided sequentially W of the Pacific separate again (rift propagation towards the E), whereby parts of the N margins of the S continents remain attached to the N continents in the form of tectonostratigraphic terranes, which will subsequently migrate westwards around the shape of the Pacific in the N.The Earth's crust is subdivided into a Pacific area and a continental or Pangaea area with Intra-Pangaea Oceans (Atlantic, Red Sea-Indian Ocean, etc.). The Pangaea area in turn is subdivided into a North Pangaea area and a South Pangaea area with the North and South Pangaea continents broadly distributed over the N and S hemispheres. The Earth's history appears to be subdivided into alternating North Pangaea growth/South Pangaea breakup eras (Permian to present Alpine Cycle; Late Proterozoic Panafrican-Brasiliano Cycle) and South Pangaea growth/North Pangaea breakup eras (Late Proterozoic and Early to Middle Paleozoic Baikalian-Caledonian Cycle; Middle Proterozoic Kibaran-Grenvillian Cycle).In the hemisphere of the Pangaea growing (since the Permian the N hemisphere) the continents are subjected to pendular movements (alternating clockwise and counterclockwise rotations combined with movements between high and low latitudes). They always face either the equator or the Pacific with the same margin. Otherwise, a collisional mountain belt would not form. The remaining two margins alternate between an Arctic- and a North Atlantic-type setting. The Cordilleran-type margin of the NE-Pacific is therefore the forerunner of the NW-Pacific island arc-type and both types are one-sided, embryonic states of the two-sided collisional mountain belt forming at the equator W of the Pacific. Since the Jurassic/Cretaceous, the Pacific margins of the N hemisphere are remobilized segments from the older lap of the North Pangaea collisional mountain belt spiral.In the hemisphere of the Pangaea breaking up (since the Permian the S hemisphere) a continent passing through the Antarctica setting rotates through approximately 120° (clockwise during a South Pangaea breakup — Permian to present; counterclockwise during a North Pangaea breakup — Late Proterozoic and Early to Middle Paleozoic) and breaks up into several India-, Australia- and Antarctica-size fragments. The one-sided Andes-type margin of the SE-Pacific (previously evolved from a West Africa-type margin) develops therefore into a one-sided New Guinea-type and into the equatorwards facing thrust zone of the two-sided collisional mountain belt forming at the equator W of the Pacific. On the other hand the SW-Pacific island arc-type margin has evolved from a North-type that might still carry fragments from the older lap of the collisional mountain belt (Atlas, parts of the N Andes and West Antarctica, New Zealand), the main parts of which migrate around the shape of the Pacific in the N in the form of tectonostratigraphic terranes.Due to the pendular movements of a continent from the Pangaea growing and the 120° rotation of a continent from the Pangaea breaking up passing through the Antarctica setting, between its birth in a rift and its death in the collision zone at the equator W of the Pacific, a continental margin will normally need much more time (Cycle of Continental Margins) than the 200 to 250 my necessary for one E drift lapping of the Earth's crust by the shape of the Pacific and the ocean states of the Wilson Cycle or Oceanic Cycle. The eugeosynclinal evolution of an ocean in most cases will therefore be comparatively shorter than the miogeosynclinal evolution of the continental margins bordering that ocean.