Evidence For Continental Drift Evidence

Two of the earth's biggest structures are our oceans and continents, which sit on tectonic plates. The interactions between tectonic plates and oceans are one big influence that can determine the earth’s climate and as a result of that can contribute to climate change.

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.

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.

1.The geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North American history is that the earth formed slowly,10 million years ago North America was sculpted ,and the continent was anchored in a north eastern corner by a canadian shield.Around 2 million years ago the great ice age began,the ice sheets were about 2 miles thick crept from the polar region , in North America the glaciers carpeted most of canada and the U.S., parts of europe,Asia,and the americas werecovered with a blanket of snow.

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

James Hutton was the first scientist to address the Earth was millions of years old, as well as alive and is continuously being formed. Charles Lyell popularized uniformitarianism, and believed the Earth was being shaped by slow moving forces. Alfred Wegener introduced the foundation for the theory of continental drift. Wegener was one of the first to recognize and have an understanding of how the Earth works which required data and information from earth sciences. In the 1960s, the theory for the continental drift became known as the theory of plate tectonics or plate building.

About 200 million years ago there was one big continent called Pangaea. They believed that, this landmass began to separate. They believed that the Atlantic Ocean formed, dividing Africa and Eurasia from the Americas. Over the next several million years plants and animals changed and made to separate biological worlds. It wasn’t until Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed to the Americas in October 1492, they started interacting with each other.

Who proposed that all of the present continents were once joined together in a single supercontinent called Pangaea?

a) Mountains were formed by the movement of the Earth’s crust. b) The Ice Age left glaciers in most of northern Canada and America. (1) Lakes formed from melted glaciers. (2) Basins were also formed. B. People the Americas 1.

who had traveled to America during the last ice age using the broad landmass, Beringia which connected North America and Asia. To solve this mystery, anthropologists came up with different theories to try and explain the differences in physical features. It is the discovery of Naia, a 12,000 to 13,000 year-old skeleton that helps them to make the connection.

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