The Continental Drift Theory

Continental Drift

Scientist Alfred Wegener was the person who came up with Continental Drift Theory in 20th century. He proposed that continents were first joined together and as the time passed they drift. Continental drift narrates one of the oldest ways geologists thought continents shifted over the time. Today, science of tectonic plates has replaced this theory of continental drift.

Fossil Evidence

In 1911 he discovered the locations of similar plants and animal fossils on different continents. Fresh water reptile measosaurus, a land reptile lystroaurus and cynognathus and a tropical fern glossopteris are some fossils included in his study. Looking at their similarities, he wondered how they are existing on such different land masses? Current theories suggest that land bridges connected the continents with each other that were eroded away or by stepping stone. Wegner than stated a much simpler hypothesis that explained the fit of the coastline though the continents were all together. He then propounded the supercontinent which he named Pangaea, which means “on earth”. Pangaea

He studied stratigraphy of mountains and rocks. He discovered that the layers of the rocks of east coast of South America west coast Africa fit together perfectly. They both were not only the similar continents with respect to geology. Appalachian Mountains of United States were geologically related to Caledonian Mountain in Scotland.

Pangaea prevailed from about 240 million years ago. The supercontinent began breaking up about 200 million years ago. Then it separated into pieces and moved away from one another. Then these pieces took their positions as the continents we see