The Current Shape Of Earths Landmasses Was First Proposed By Abraham Ortelius

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 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.

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, a navigator and a cosmographer from the Renaissance period (1451-1512). He is remembered for several important reasons, especially for promoting a scientific approach to access the world. On his first expedition, Vespucci explored the Amazon river, which in present-day covers the region of Brazil in South America. Also, as opposed to the early methods used by navigators, who estimated their position based on their previous location and the distance traveled, Vespucci took accurate navigational measurements and referred to the position of the stars and the moon to determine the longitude. Also, by accurately calculating the length of the equator, he helped determine the size of the earth. However, he made his most important scientific contribution, using his astronomical observations, when he identified that the lands discovered by Columbus were not part of Asia as thought by many Europeans at the time, but were a completely separate continent. To honor Vespucci’s great discovery, the continents of the western hemisphere were eventually named after his first name and was thus called America.

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?

Back about 21,00 years ago there was one big continent called Pangia. Then plates started moving, the ice age happened, Land bridge formed then disapered.

Alfred Wegener was a meteorologist and astronomer. He was the first scientist to introduce the theory of the continental drift. Wegener theorized that at one time the continents were one large landmass or Pangaea that had drifted apart. His ideas were initially rejected by other scientists. It was not until long after Wegener’s death that proof was obtained and his theory verified.

James Hutton discovered uniformitarianism; one of the most fundamental principles in geology today. Uniformitarianism is the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes. Hutton also discovered that Earth is much older that most scientists believed, allowing for the process of gradual and slow change. Natural selection and continental drift would not have been able to have been supported without the research done by Hutton. In 1752 Hutton started to pay attention to little details like how there were outlines of underwater crustaceans on rocks high above sea level. At the age of 58, Hutton published a 2 page summary of everything he had discovered in the

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