A rock, found by a professor and once Master's student from UMD, is seen by experts as evidence that Antarctica and North America may have been connected millions of years ago.

Tiffany Tarrolly explains.

Geologists like John Goodge, believe that through the Earth's history, the continents have separated and re–united several times.

When joined together they formed what are called "Super Continents."

Tthere are three super continents that we feel pretty confident about in the scientific community and but even as we go back through that time people will start to argue more and more about exactly what it looked like," said Goodge, a Geology Professor at UMD.

Rodinia, one of those supposed Super Continents, is thought to have existed more than a billion years ago.

This rock, which Goodge refers to as "TNQ" is thought by some to be evidence not only of the existence of Rodinia, but also evidence that Antarctica and North America were once connected.

"This one piece of evidence is really what cemented the whole thing together," Goodge said.

Most scientists agree that super continents did exist, but questions remain about which continents were connected to which?

As part of her Master's research Devon Brecke went with Goodge to Antarctica to collect rock samples.

She performed numerous tests on TNQ.

"We compared it to the rock samples that are found in the southwest US and these rock types are identical in many ways and so therefore the continents must have been connected during the super continent Rodinia," Brecke said.

"These little white dots show a belt of very distinctive igneous rocks that have unique textures, unique geo–chemical properties and unique age. They formed about 1.4 billion years ago."

And that's exactly how old TNQ is: 1.4 billion years.

"This particular sample is so unique and so different and there's no other way to explain how it got to east Antarctica," Goodge said.

He said although the evidence is compelling, skepticism remains.

"This whole idea about reconstructing continents is very controversial. Everybody has their own pet ideas about what the continents may have looked like," said Goodge.

By piecing together how the continents may once have looked, Goodge says we can learn a lot about life and natural resources throughout history.

Goodge said it's tempting to look for more rocks like TNQ, but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.