was the first continent ( land mass ) formed in North America?

Answer 1

The thinking among geologists is that, way before pangaea, in the Archeaen (say four to five billion years ago, or thousand million years ago if you are british), continents starting developing as isolated volcanic highlands riding higher above an essentially basaltic crust (sort of like the sea bottom is today). Little microcontinents. I suppose Iceland would be a good physical analogy.

Over time, these highlands collided and joined together into several protocontinents. These areas are recognized as "shields" or "cratons" on the current continents, the oldest parts, or the hearts of continents.

Over time the continents evidently grew, adding on parts to their outer edges as the plates migrated around (say, like how Japan has formed on the eastern side of asia). Sometimes the continents collided (like india into asia), and sometimes they separated, taking parts of the other continents with them.

Pangaea was a (relatively recent) supercontinent that resulted from collecting together of essentially all of the continental mass, but it eventually separated again.

Returning to your question, shield areas are found in northern Canada and part of Greenland, in Western Australia, in Siberia, in west Africa. The oldest dates for earth materials are obtained from shield rocks in Greenland and Australia. But things are such a mess and mishmash and metamorphosed, bent, melted, faulted, eroded, covered by later material, and so forth, that to point to a given location and say this is the earliest continental material would be difficult, to say the least.

Answer 2

"Leads me to infer that prehistoric east asians from Manchurian China followed the grazing cattle and sheep & goat herds across the Behring strait- land mass to Alaska." Well, NO! As the Native Americans had no cattle or sheep or goats until the arrival of the Spanish! And it would've been Siberia not Manchuria that these Asian people came from! But as for your other theories, you are probably correct! Scientific evidence is kinda on the iffy side, but the prevailing theories is just what you are asking, that the Native Americans did migrate to the "New World" by way of the Bering Strait Land Bridge, and it is just logical that some would have had boats, too, i.e. like Eskimos and Inuit with kayaks. BTW! Thor's expeditions did create much debate! And then you must think of Easter Island, and the "Long Ears" and "Big Noses" as described by the people there! Mixture of Polynesians and Native Americans, most likely! But it's all theory, except for the Clovis Point type of stone knapping found throughout North America! This technology was of a higher thought process than most stone points. So, yes, Asians did migrate to the Americas!

Answer 3

Before the continents we know today existed, all the land mass on Earth was collected into one giant supercontinent called Pangaea (meaning "all Earth").

Pangaea broke up about 180 million years ago (in the Jurassic Period) first into two supercontinents (Gondwana to the south and Laurasia to the north), thereafter into the continents we have today.

North America is just one of the continents that formed when Laurasia broke up into North America, Asia, etc.

Answer 4

The Canadian Shield has the oldest crustal
rock on the North American continent, if that's
what your asking. Other parts of the continent
accreted later.