South Tarawa through 130 million years

South Tarawa lay at 31° south.

The great extinction

South Tarawa lay at 8° south, the latitude of Dili today.

South Tarawa crosses the equator.

Heading north.

South Tarawa crosses the equator.

Heading north.

Homo sapiens

South Tarawa lay at 1° north, its latitude today.

South Tarawa today.

1° north. In 130 million years the plates have carried it some 9,700 kilometres.

latitude through time

Oldest position in the model: 31° south; 130 million years ago
Farthest south: 31° south; 130 million years ago
Farthest north: 3° north; 10 million years ago
Crossed the equator: 40 million years ago
Crossed the equator: 30 million years ago
Crossed the equator: 30 million years ago
Distance travelled: 9,700 kilometres; 130 million years

other places

Positions come from the plate model of Merdith and colleagues (2021), through the GPlates Web Service of the EarthByte Group at the University of Sydney. The globe shows today's coastlines carried back with their plates, not the shorelines of the time, so it does not say whether a place was land or sea. Cities and their coordinates come from Wikidata.