Where was Laurentia?

The continental plates of the Earth move, merge, split apart, submerge, override, etc. At times in history the oceans and continents have looked very different. Many people know of the supercontinent of Pangea. As Pangea was pulled apart by enormous forces of continental drift and volcanic activity, new continental segments appeared.

Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America; originally it also included the cratonic {unmodified} areas of Greenland and also the northwestern part of Scotland, known as the Hebridean Terrane.

Laurentia, from the same root name as the St. Lawrence River, has a large mountain range that exists in North America in the south of the province of Quebec. The largest part of Canada and the United States east of the Rockies is the former Laurentia.