Continental Drift Research Paper

In 1596- Abraham Ortelius took note that the coastlines of the continents seemed to be too fitting together. He initiated a theory that stated that the continents were probably joined at one point in time and were torn apart between Europe and Africa. In the year of 1912, Alfred Wegener stated that the continents were once joined in a supercontinent called Pangea.

The first, would be Land features. Alfred Wegener saw how the coal fields in North America and Europe lined up, he also realized that mountain ranges in North America and Africa lined up. The second, evidence he used were the fossils. There were three types of fossils he found the first was the glossopteris a fern like plant found in Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica. The second and third were the Mesosaurus and the Lystrosaurus fossils, they were freshwater reptile fossils on continents separated by oceans. The third evidence Alfred Wegener used was, the climate zones. Alfred Wegener looked at the past of the climates and he found scratches in rocks from glaciers in South Africa. Those were the three main evidences Alfred Wegener used to prove Continental Drift

The plate tectonics theory was made by a German named Alfred Wegener. He stated that a single continent existed about 300 million years ago named Pangaea and that it split into two continents of Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south. Today’s continents were formed by further splitting of the two masses.

There is evidence that the shape of the continents coastlines were once connected. In Figure one I see that some continents coastlines look like they would fit together perfectly. It is almost like they are puzzle pieces. A good example of this would be the eastern coastline of South America and the western coastline of Africa. I can imagine these pieces of land sliding together perfectly. Another example is, Australia’s southern coastline rotated to Africa’s southeast coastline is. The shape of the continents coastlines is evidence that all of the continents were connected at some point because the coastlines could fit together.

2. The theory of “Pangaea” exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent. The continents then spread out as drifting islands.

In junior high school, I have learned the Continental Drift Theory, and my geography teacher told me there was a new theory based on the Continental Theory, i.e. Plate Tectonics. I accessed to the Internet to find the information about Plate Tectonics.

Between 280 million and 225 million years ago, the earth’s previously separated land areas became welded into a landmass called Pangaea. About 120 million years ago, due to the continental drift, this landmass began to separate. It split the old world and the new world apart, which dividing North and South America from Eurasia and Africa. The separation lasted for million years that it fostered divergent evolution. The new world and the old world’s biological evolution followed individual paths, becoming two separate biological worlds. However, after 1492, human voyagers reversed this tendency. In October 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew landed in Bahamas. After Columbus arrived in

To support the theory of continental drift is through topography, surveying the floors of oceans, charts of rock magnetism, and statistics on rock ages (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). At one time scientist believed that the deep ocean floors were flat; accumulating the sediment that progressively wore away from the prehistoric landmasses (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). However, they discovered steep-walled valleys and elevated highlands. This was evidences that just as the continents are transformed and are active, so to is the seafloor (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). The Mid- Atlantic Ridge, positioned in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, is recorded to be the longest mountain range on this planet. Volcanoes, lava flow, and earthquakes are a source of

Millions of years ago according to scientist the whole world was one large mass called Pangea. When this mass began to split, it divided the Americas from the Eastern World along with the people on it. This resulted in tens of thousands years apart from one another which led to different developments on each continent. After all these years though a man named Columbus’s discovers the Americas in 1492. As soon as he took

First Coast, also known as Northeast Florida, is located on the Atlantic coast, comprising of five counties surrounding Jacksonville: Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns. It extends past the southern end of Anastasia Island to Marineland. The name “First Coast” originally appeared in a marketing campaign in the 1980s, and has its origins as the first area of Florida to be colonized by Europeans. Ponce De Leon is believed to have landed in the First Coast region during the early 1500s on his first expedition. In the 1560s, the French established the colony of Fort Caroline in what is today Jacksonville. First Coast is not only known for its historical significance, but it is also the state’s best-kept secret as vacationers paradise, that

Old worlds and new worlds was carried by the drift that was the continental, splitting from Eurasia and Africa is

Geologists believe that between 280 million and 225 million years ago, the earth’s previously separate land areas became welded into a landmass called Pangaea. About 120 million years ago, they believe, this landmass began to separate. As this happened, the Atlantic Ocean formed, dividing the Americas from Africa and Eurasia. Over the course of the next several million years in both the Americas and in Afro-Eurasia, biological evolution followed individual paths, creating two primarily separate biological worlds. However, when Christopher Columbus and his crew made land in the Bahamas in October 1492, these two long-separated worlds were reunited. Columbus’ voyage, along with the many voyages that followed, disrupted much of the biological segregation brought about by continental drift.

The world once was one big landmass called Pangea. Alfred Wegener, the man who discovered that Pangea happened, tried to explain to people how he knew Pangea was real. He found lots of evidence including animal and plant fossils, which showed that some of the fossils of the animals could only survive in fresh water so they could not swim all the way across a salt water ocean, or how are they are about 50 of the same types of trees right on the border of South America and Africa. Next, there are rock sequences, they are the exact same rock layers underground of South America and Africa. Also, there is glacier evidence that shows that there are glacier marks on rocks in Africa and South America and those places are way too hot for a glacier.

The first theory was that land bridges connected all of the continents, being in the same spot through all of time, the land bridges would’ve gotten covered by water and become part of the ocean.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, James Hutton proposed a theory, uniformitarianism; “the present is the key to the past”. It held that processes such as geologic forces- gradual and catastrophic-occurring in the present were the same that operated in the past. (Matt Rosenberg, 2004) This theory coincides with the theory of Continental Drift that was first proposed by Abraham Ortelius in December 1596, who suggested that North, South America, Africa and Eurasia were once connected but had been torn apart by earthquakes and floods. He also discovered that the coasts of the eastern part of South America and the