Editing Carboniferous (section)

=== Gondwana ===
Much of Gondwana lay in the southern polar region during the Carboniferous. As the plate moved, the South Pole drifted from southern Africa in the early Carboniferous to eastern Antarctica by the end of the period.<ref name="Torsvik-2017" /> [[Till|Glacial deposits]] are widespread across Gondwana and indicate multiple ice centres and long-distance movement of ice.<ref name="Montañez-2022">{{Cite journal |last=Montañez |first=Isabel Patricia |date=July 2022 |title=Current synthesis of the penultimate icehouse and its imprint on the Upper Devonian through Permian stratigraphic record |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |language=en |volume=512 |issue=1 |pages=213–245 |doi=10.1144/SP512-2021-124 |bibcode=2022GSLSP.512..213M |issn=0305-8719|doi-access=free }}</ref> The northern to northeastern margin of Gondwana (northeast Africa, Arabia, India and northeastern West Australia) was a passive margin along the southern edge of the Paleo-Tethys with cyclothem deposition including, during more temperate intervals, coal swamps in Western Australia.<ref name="Torsvik-2017" /> The Mexican terranes along the northwestern Gondwana margin, were affected by the subduction of the Rheic Ocean.<ref name="Domeier-2014" /> However, they lay to west of the Ouachita orogeny and were not impacted by continental collision but became part of the active margin of the Pacific.<ref name="Nance-2010" /> The Moroccan margin was affected by periods of widespread dextral strike-slip deformation, magmatism and metamorphism associated with the Variscan orogeny.<ref name="Torsvik-2017" />

Towards the end of the Carboniferous, extension and rifting across the northern margin of Gondwana led to the breaking away of the [[Cimmerian terrane]] during the early Permian and the opening of the [[Tethys Ocean|Neo-Tethys Ocean]].<ref name="Domeier-2014" /> Along the southeastern and southern margin of Gondwana (eastern Australia and Antarctica), northward subduction of Panthalassa continued. Changes in the relative motion of the plates resulted in the early Carboniferous [[Kanimblan Orogeny]]. [[Continental arc]] magmatism continued into the late Carboniferous and extended round to connect with the developing [[Andean orogeny|proto-Andean]] subduction zone along the western South American margin of Gondwana.<ref name="Torsvik-2017" />