For though life can certainly evolve in oceans, as it did on Earth, it probably needs the chemical and climate-regulating contributions of continents to do so.Unfortunately, many exoplanetologists think super-Earths will be covered entirely by oceans, since their high gravity will make it hard for areas of light rocks (such as those which form continents on Earth) to rise above sea level.
A computer model refining the theory purports to show an earth wobbling crazily on its axis as land masses come together and then break apart, forming the continents we have today.
Over time, Gondwana and other ancient landmasses broke up, forming the continents we see today.
Kyanite occurs in high pressure rocks as formed during continent-continent collisions, so it´s quite a typical mineral to be found in mountains, like the Alps.
Similarly, mainland Asia was united with the Indonesian and Philippine islands forming the continent of Sunda, separated from Sahul by the Java and Philippine oceanic trenches [19] (Figure 1a).
The advantages began billions of years ago, when this crustal recycling made the oceans and atmosphere and formed the continents.
Less-extensive mountains can also form when continents rift apart (as is happening today in the East African Rift) or where hot spots form volcanic uplifts.
There the layers of sediment accumulate one above the other, harden, and, in the course of time, rise from the bottom of the sea to form new continents.
Thus, progressively older rocks were formed when continents were at different locations from where they are today (see also plate tectonics: Paleomagnetism, polar wandering, and continental drift).
When rocks are subjected to high temperatures and pressures in mountain roots formed where continents collide, certain datable minerals grow and even regrow to record the timing of such geologic events.
