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Early Evidence for Continental Drift Hypothesis; Proposed Mechanism for Continental Drift; Development of Plate Tectonic Theory. Mapping of the Ocean Floors; Paleomagnetism; Wadati-Benioff Zones; References
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The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones. Although the evidence for continental drift was extremely strong, scientists rejected the idea because no mechanism for how solid continents could move around on the ...
- Why Did Scientists Reject Wegener's Continental Drift Theory?
- Evolving Theories
- What Evidence Is There For Continental Drift?
- Additional Resources
Geologists roundly denounced Wegener's continental drift theory after he published the details in a 1915 book called "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." Part of the opposition was because Wegener didn't have a good model to explain how the continents moved, something scientists later explained under the umbrella of plate tectonics — the theory t...
When Wegener proposed continental drift, many geologists were contractionists. They thought Earth's incredible mountains were created because our planet had been cooling and shrinking since its formation, Frankel said. And to account for the identical fossils discovered on continents such as South America and Africa, scientists invoked ancient land...
A map of the continents inspired Wegener's quest to explain Earth's geologic history. He was intrigued by the interlocking fit of Africa's and South America's shorelines. Wegener then assembled an impressive amount of continental drift evidence to show that Earth's continents were once connected in a single supercontinent. Wegener knew that fossil ...
Learn more about the history of continental drift and plate tectonics from the U.S. Geological Survey.Learn more about Alfred Wegener from the NASA Earth Observatory.Watch this short video on YouTube about plate tectonics and continental drift, from National Geographic.Early Evidence for Continental Drift Hypothesis Wegener’s first evidence was that some continents’ coastlines fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. People noticed the similarities in the coastlines of South America and Africa on the first world maps, and some suggested the continents had been ripped apart.
Apr 5, 2024 · continental drift, large-scale horizontal movements of continents relative to one another and to the ocean basins during one or more episodes of geologic time. This concept was an important precursor to the development of the theory of plate tectonics , which incorporates it.
