Theory of Continental Drift

Alfred Wegener
1912
Continents were
once joined
Continents are
drifting apart

The theory was also not accepted because he could not

explain WHY the continents moved.

Evidence for Continental Drift

1. Matching Coastlines
2. Fossil Evidence
3. Evidence from Rocks
4. Climatic Evidence

Matching Coastlines
Wegener noticed
that coastlines of
different continents
matched in shape.
They seemed to fit
together like a
puzzle.

Wegener also noticed that similar fossil records were

found on continents that are currently thousands of
miles apart.

He
couldnt
swim
Located on
S. America
and Africa

Glossopteris was a tropical plant whose fossil has

been found in Antarctica!

Evidence from Rocks

Many rock formations and mountain ranges form specific

patterns when the continents are brought together.

Climatic Evidence
Similar glacial scars and striations have
been found on different continents. The
striations match when continents are
brought together.

Also, there are areas near the equator that

have glacial scarring.

The position of the continents today. The continents are still

slowly moving, at about the speed your fingernails grow.
Satellite measurements have confirmed that every year the
Atlantic Ocean gets a few inches wider!

550 Million Years ago

250 million years ago

150 million years ago

100 million years ago

65 million years ago

Present day

Questions ..
Everyone agreed that Wegeners evidence was
compelling. But wouldnt we feel the movement?
Also, wouldnt there be evidence to show that the
continents were still moving today?
Wegener was a meteorologist and his theory was
not well accepted. (He died on an expedition in
Greenland collecting ice samples)

Seafloor Spreading

Picture from USGS

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/HHH.html

In the 1960s, a scientist named

Henry Hess made a discovery that
would help prove Wegeners
Theory.
Using new technology, radar, he
discovered that the seafloor has
both trenches and mid-ocean
ridges.
Henry Hess proposed the sea-floor
spreading theory.

Seafloor Spreading
Hess proposed that hot, less
dense material below Earths
crust rises toward the surface
at the mid-ocean ridges.
Then, it flows sideways,
carrying the seafloor away
from the ridge in both
directions.

Picture from http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/platetectonics/4.php

Seafloor Spreading
As the seafloor spreads apart at a mid-ocean
ridge, new seafloor is created.
The older seafloor moves away from the ridge in
opposite directions.
This helped explain how the crust could move
something that the continental drift hypothesis
could not do.

Picture from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/divergent.html

Evidence for Spreading

In 1968, scientists aboard the research ship
Glomar Challenger began gathering
information about the rocks on the seafloor.
Scientists found that the youngest rocks are
located at the mid-ocean ridges.

Mechanism for
Plate Tectonics
Seafloor Spreading
provided a way to
show how the
continents moved.
Picture from
http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/platetectonics/2.php

By convection
currents

HOW?
The magma which pushes up through the
ocean floor at the mid-ocean ridge makes
new land pushing the plates
and the subduction zones gobble up the
land on the other side of the plates.

Plate Tectonic Theory

Both Hesss discovery and
Wegners continental drift
theory combined into what
scientists now call the Plate
Tectonic Theory.
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=0mWQs1_L3fA
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=tcPghqnnTVk

Theory of Plate Tectonics

The Earths crust and part of the
upper mantle are broken into
sections, called plates which
move on a plastic-like layer
of the mantle

How do plates move?

Convergent: crashing together
Divergent: moving apart
Transform: Sliding against each
other

Plate Boundaries - 3 Types

Convergent
(destructive)
Divergent
(constructive)
Strike-slip
(transform)

Convergent Boundary = Plate COLLISION

Andes

Japan

Himalayans

Which plate subducts depends upon plate density.

Oceanic plates are more dense than continental plates,
therefore oceanic plates will subduct beneath
continental plates.

Plate Tectonic Theory

Plate Tectonics explains
Earthquakes
Mountains
Volcanoes

Plate Tectonics
Also explains
Trenches

Island Arcs
Sea mounts
Fault lines

Plate Tectonics
Earth's lithosphere is
divided into 7 major
plates (crust)
Plates float on the
aesthenosphere
(mantle)
Plates move in different
directions
Movement depends on
weight and size

Pacific Plate
African Plate
South American Plate
European Plate
Seven Major
Lithospheric Plates
North American Plate
Indo-Australian Plate
Antarctic Plate

Plate Boundaries are very active

with Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and
mountain building.

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