The Origin of Florida

As it turns out, Florida was not always part of North America.  It makes sense, after all, most of the state is just sort of sticking out awkwardly from the rest of the continent.  Scientists have come to the conclusion that Florida used to be part of either South America or Africa, but collided with North America about 300 million years ago.  They came to this conclusion after analyzing an ususual geologic feature called the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly.

This discovery was based in the ongoing effort to understand North America's tectonic history.  The Brunswick Anomaly stretches across the southeastern United States, and debate on it focuses on whether it was formed 200 million years ago when Pangaea split up, or much earlier when the continents first collided.  Evidence shows that the anomaly seems to have formed earlier, the event that formed the southern Appalachians.  It looks like this collision also resulted in Florida breaking off from its original home and sticking to North America.

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