CONTINENTAL DRIFT
INTRODUCTION
The continental drift hypothesis was developed in the early part of the 20 th century,
mostly by Alfred Wegener. Wegener said that continents move around on Earth’s
surface and that they were once joined together as a single supercontinent. While
Wegener was alive, scientists did not believe that the continents could move.
THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IDEA
Find a map of the continents and cut each one out. Better yet, use a map where the
edges of the continents show the continental shelf. That’s the true size and shape of
a continent. Can you fit the pieces together? The easiest link is between the eastern
Americas and western Africa and Europe, but the rest can fit together too.
1. The continents fit together like pieces of a puzzle. This is how they looked 250
million years ago.
Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once united into a single
supercontinent named Pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient Greek. He suggested
that Pangaea broke up long ago to Lawrasia (includes the present day North
America, Greenland, Europe and Asia or Eurasia) & Gondwanaland (includes the
present day South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia and Antarctica)
and that the continents then moved to their current positions. He called his
hypothesis continental drift.
EVIDENCE FOR CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Besides the way the continents fit together, Wegener and his supporters collected a
great deal of evidence for the continental drift hypothesis.
Identical rocks, of the same type and age, are found on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean. Wegener said the rocks had formed side-by-side and that the
land had since moved apart.
Mountain ranges with the same rock types, structures, and ages are now on
opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The Appalachians of the eastern United
States and Canada, for example, are just like mountain ranges in eastern
Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. Wegener concluded that they
formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents
drifted.
2. The similarities between the Appalachian and the eastern Greenland mountain
ranges are evidences for the continental drift hypothesis.
Ancient fossils of the same species of extinct plants and animals are found
in rocks of the same age but are on continents that are now widely separated.
Wegener proposed that the organisms had lived side by side, but that the
lands had moved apart after they were dead and fossilized. He suggested that
the organisms would not have been able to travel across the oceans.
o Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris were too heavy to be carried so
far by wind.
o Mesosaurus was a swimming reptile but could only swim in fresh
water.
o Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were land reptiles and were unable to
swim
3. Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The
fossils of these organisms are found on lands that are now far apart.
Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on
different continents very close to the equator. This would indicate that the
glaciers either formed in the middle of the ocean and/or covered most of the
Earth. Today glaciers only form on land and nearer the poles. Wegener
thought that the glaciers were centered over the southern land mass close to
the South Pole and the continents moved to their present positions later on.
Coral reefs and coal-forming swamps are found in tropical and subtropical
environments, but ancient coal seams and coral reefs are found in locations
where it is much too cold today. Wegener suggested that these creatures
were alive in warm climate zones and that the fossils and coal later had
drifted to new locations on the continents.
Although Wegener’s evidence was sound, most geologists at the time rejected his
hypothesis of continental drift.
Why do you think scientists did not accept continental drift?
Scientists argued that there was no way to explain how solid continents
could plow through solid oceanic crust. Wegener’s idea was nearly forgotten
until technological advances presented even more evidence that the
continents moved and gave scientists the tools to develop a mechanism for
Wegener’s drifting continents.
Most evidences of the theory were from the southern hemisphere while most
geologists are located in the northern hemisphere.
Geological processes like movement of land masses cannot occur within
short geological time. But Wegener assumed that the drifting of Pangaea to
existing continents took only one era (Mesozoic).
Geological research and investigation requires critical knowledge and skill
in the study area. Wegener is not a geologist but meteorologist.
