Laurasia
Speech parts
1. Laurasia - Noun
2. Laurasia - Proper noun
Meaning
a hypothetical continent that (according to plate tectonic theory) broke up later into North America and Europe and Asia
Source: WordNetExamples
By the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had begun rifting into two landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south.
Shoumatoff (2001), 35 In the Paleozoic Era the Pangaean supercontinent consisted of a single tectonic plate ; it broke into separate plates during the Mesozoic Era and the Tethys sea developed between Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic Period.
Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia (North America) and the Eurasian continent.
The eight continents later re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea ; Pangaea broke up into Laurasia (which became North America and Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became the remaining continents).
The vast supercontinent of Pangaea existed until the mid-Triassic, after which it began to gradually rift into two separate landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south.