Wellington through 280 million years

Wellington lay at 75° south.

The first dinosaurs

Wellington lay at 83° south.

Farthest south.

Wellington lay at 87° south.

The great extinction

Wellington lay at 55° south.

Homo sapiens

Wellington lay at 41° south, its latitude today.

Wellington today.

41° south. In 280 million years the plates have carried it some 13,000 kilometres.

latitude through time

Oldest position in the model: 75° south; 280 million years ago
Farthest south: 87° south; 160 million years ago
Distance travelled: 13,000 kilometres; 280 million years

other places

Sydney
Canberra
Melbourne
Apia
Yaren District
South Tarawa
Majuro
Palikir
Dili
Nusantara

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.