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    Drifting Continents

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    Marilyn Castro Laquindanum
    The document discusses Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1910. It explains how he hypothesized that the continents were once joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea before drifting apart. The document provides evidence from matching land features, similar fossils found in distant locations, and climate clues to support continental drift.

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    Drifting Continents

    Uploaded by

    Marilyn Castro Laquindanum
    24 views13 pages
    The document discusses Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1910. It explains how he hypothesized that the continents were once joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea before drifting apart. The document provides evidence from matching land features, similar fossils found in distant locations, and climate clues to support continental drift.

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    drifting continents

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    The document discusses Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1910. It explains how he hypothesized that the continents were once joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea before drifting apart. The document provides evidence from matching land features, similar fossils found in distant locations, and climate clues to support continental drift.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    24 views13 pages

    Drifting Continents

    Uploaded by

    Marilyn Castro Laquindanum
    The document discusses Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1910. It explains how he hypothesized that the continents were once joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea before drifting apart. The document provides evidence from matching land features, similar fossils found in distant locations, and climate clues to support continental drift.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Drifting Continents

    Introduction
    • During Columbus’s journeys the map of the world
    changed to include two new continents.
    • Africa, Asia, and Europe were already known.
    • The new map with South America and North
    America made many to question why the east coast
    of South America was almost like a puzzle piece to
    Africa’s western coast.
    • Were they once one continent?
    Continental Drift

    • In 1910 German scientist Alfred Wegener


    hypothesized that all continents were once joined
    together as a single land mass but they have drifted
    apart.
    • He believed that there was one supercontinent by
    the name of Pangaea.
    • Pangaea eventually began to break into the
    continents we know today.
    Land Evidence
    • Mountains and other land features provide evidence for
    continental drift.
    • The Appalachian Mountains in the United States and the
    Caledonian Mountains in Europe match in size and rock type.
    • The Andes Mountains in South America are similar in size to
    the Rocky Mountains in North America.
    • You can also see mineral deposits line up between North
    America and Europe.
    Fossil Evidence
    • A fossil is any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved
    in rock.
    • Similar fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old have been
    found on continents thousands of miles apart.
    • The plants and vegetation that once covered western Africa also
    once covered South America.
    • Many of these creatures were reptiles that did not have the ability
    to swim vast oceans, so the lands must have been connected or
    much closer together.
    Climate Evidence
    • As continents moved towards the equator they would
    become tropical and if they moved towards the poles they
    would become artic.
    • For example, it was recently discovered that a fossil of a
    tropical plant was found on an island in the Arctic.
    • This means that this island must have once been near the
    equator and had a warm climate.
    • Rocks in warm South Africa showed evidence of glacial
    scratching which means it must have been closer to the
    poles.
    Wegner’s Hypothesis
    • Unfortunately for Wegener he could not provide an
    explanation of what force cause the continents to drift.
    • Geologists at that time rejected his idea they believed that
    mountains formed because the Earth was getting wrinkles
    due to cooling and shrinking.
    • Wegner said if these geologists were correct mountains
    would be found all over Earth’s surface.
    • Wegner proposed that mountains were formed when
    continents collided and they pushed and folded against
    each other.
    Conclusion
    • Scientist Alfred Wegener came up with the theory of continental drift.
    • He backed up his theory by explaining how land features like mountains
    would be the same on different continents.
    • He also used fossil evidence by showing how some creatures lived on
    South America and Africa, but these creatures did not swim in the ocean.
    • He also used climate evidence to explain how glacier scratches are found
    in tropical regions.
    • In the early 1900s his theory was rejected, but he continued to collect
    evidence until his death in 1930. The theory was accepted in 1965 as plate
    tectonics.

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