Lithosphere Plates Research Paper

The other part of the Earth consists of rigid plates which is called the lithosphere plates. They are moving relatively to each other. The moving of lithosphere plates is called plate tectonics. The idea of plate tectonics begin in 1600. Little significance was given to this notion till 1915 when Alfred Wegener, Germany meteorologist and geophysicist wrote a book entitled The Origins of Continents and Oceans. He had read about the similarities in the American and European fossils and become interested by the fit of the Atlantic coastlines. He proposed the theory that the continents had drifted into place and had elaborated the continental drift theory in his book.

Most geologists of the time believed that crust of the Earth had taken shape and this counter to the theory of continental drift. The Earth that has been created in a molten

First, he noticed that the outline of Africa and South America fit together as two pieces of jigsaw puzzle. However, the shape of the pieces itself is not sufficient to put the puzzle together. The pattern of the pieces must also fit together and the colour on the pictures also needed to put together. In order to prove that the continents once resembles, Wagener then look for pattern that could be followed from continents to continents. Wegener noticed that the fossil, Cynognathus had been observed in both Africa and in South America. Cynognathus was a reptile that living on the land and lived for 200-250 million years. Today, the form of vegetative of the continentals are very different to each other. So, there will be no possibilities of the same type of animals will live on both continentals during the same period. Most scientist agreed with Wegener that the land living Cynognathus could not have cross the Atlantic Ocean by swimming as it cannot fly and does not look like it can swim, certainly not crossing the Atlantic