The Fruitiness of August. The Silurian. Plate tectonics and mountain building

The supercontinent Gondwana had drifted southward and covered most of the southern latitudes. Much of the northern half of the planet was ocean with two smaller continents, Laurentia and Baltica, near the equator. Another micro-continent, Avalonia, rifted from the northern edge of Gondwana and drifted northward. Beginning in the late Ordovician and continuing throughout the Silurian and into the Devonian, the three northern continents collided, forming the new supercontinent, Euramerica. This collision resulted in a major mountain building event known as the Caledonian Orogeny. The hills and mountains of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the northern Appalachians are remnants of this event, as are the mountains of Sweden and Norway.