Continental Drift Theory Quiz

Pangaea and Continental Drift

• Pangaea was located around the South Pole during the Permian-Carboniferous period, around 250-300 million years ago.
• Laurasia and Gondwanaland are two supercontinents that formed when Pangaea broke apart, which later further subdivided into the present-day continents.

Geological Evidences for Continental Drift

• Fit of the continents: the shapes of Africa and South America fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
• Similarity of coastlines: the rock layers and fossils found on the coastlines of Africa and South America are similar.
• Fossil evidence: fossils of the same age and species have been found on different continents, suggesting that these landmasses were once connected.
• Paleomagnetism: rocks on different continents have similar magnetic properties, indicating that they were once connected and shared the same magnetic field.

Challenges to Alfred Wegener's Theory

• Lack of a mechanism: Wegener's theory lacked a clear explanation for how the continents moved.
• Incomplete evidence: the evidence available at the time was not comprehensive enough to convince the scientific community.

Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

• Continental drift is a component of plate tectonics, which is the study of the movement of the Earth's lithosphere.
• Plate tectonics provides a mechanism for continental drift, explaining how the Earth's crust is broken into moving plates.