SC confused between A and B

sanjoy18 wrote:New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of
asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in
the Earth's magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,
splitting apart continents 80 million years ago, and
great volcanic eruptions.

(A) splitting apart continents
(B) the splitting apart of continents
(C) split apart continents
(D) continents split apart
(E) continents that were split apart

sanjoy18 wrote:New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of
asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in
the Earth's magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,
splitting apart continents 80 million years ago, and
great volcanic eruptions.

(A) splitting apart continents
(B) the splitting apart of continents
(C) split apart continents
(D) continents split apart
(E) continents that were split apart

Mission2012 wrote:[spoiler]B

Parallelism of nouns and complex gerund.

eruption, reversal (action noun),the onset of ice ages , he splitting apart of continents (complex gerunds)

A - splitting apart continents is simple gerund which cant be made parallel to action nound