A Wilson cycle describes the opening and eventual closure of an ocean basin. Continental rifting thins and separates continental lithosphere; subsequent seafloor spreading can create an ocean between the fragments. Later subduction consumes oceanic lithosphere, and convergence can end in continental collision.
The sequence helps connect present structures with former environments. A suture zone, remnants of oceanic material and dated deformation can support closure of an earlier basin. The cycle concerns one basin's history, whereas the supercontinent cycle describes global continental assembly and dispersal; neither name requires an exact periodic clock.

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