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  • Continental Drift Theory: A Presentation Made by Group 2

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    Nina Cosa
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    The document summarizes the continental drift theory, which proposes that approximately 200 million years ago, all the continents were joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Pangaea later split into two large landmasses, Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, as the continents gradually drifted apart, opening the Atlantic Ocean and forming today's continental configuration. The theory was first proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 but was not widely accepted until the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s provided a geological mechanism to explain continental movement.

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    The document summarizes the continental drift theory, which proposes that approximately 200 million years ago, all the continents were joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Pangaea later split into two large landmasses, Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, as the continents gradually drifted apart, opening the Atlantic Ocean and forming today's continental configuration. The theory was first proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 but was not widely accepted until the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s provided a geological mechanism to explain continental movement.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    8 views10 pages

    Continental Drift Theory: A Presentation Made by Group 2

    Uploaded by

    Nina Cosa
    The document summarizes the continental drift theory, which proposes that approximately 200 million years ago, all the continents were joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Pangaea later split into two large landmasses, Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, as the continents gradually drifted apart, opening the Atlantic Ocean and forming today's continental configuration. The theory was first proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 but was not widely accepted until the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s provided a geological mechanism to explain continental movement.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 10

    Continental Drift Theory

    A Presentation made by group 2

    INTRODUCTION
    It is believed that all of the present continents were initially one super continent (gigantic continent) called Pangaea. Pangaea split up about 200 million years ago and the pieces drifted slowly apart, creating 2 new continentsLaurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south. The 2 new super continents then pulled apart east and west opening the Atlantic Ocean and forming todays continents.

    HISTORY
    Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. However, it was not until the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s, that a sufficient geological explanation of that movement was found.

    ALFRED WEGENER

    CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY


    In 1912, the Continental Drift Theory was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and geologist. The theory that once all the continents were joined in a super-continent, which scientists call Pangaea. This theory is supported by such evidences as some of the continental coastlines; for example, the west coast of Africa and the South coast of South America appearing to fit together.

    WHY DO CONTINENTS DRIFT?

    It is due to the plate tectonic theory. The Earth is made up of Tectonic Plates, these are large sections of land (Continental Plates) or ocean (Oceanic Plates). The Mantle (magma beneath the Earth's crust) is heated from the core of the Earth, where it is hottest, causing a convection current, this is when a fluid (magma in this case) is heated unevenly and the hot fluid rises, causing the cooler fluid to sink in its place (forming a circular current of heating, rising, cooling and sinking.) This current effectively drags the Tectonic Plates along in different directions to each other, causing them to move apart or together, sometimes even alongside each other.

    PROBLEMS WITH THE THEORY


    No mechanism for movement of continents Please watch this video to know Wind and currents could problems move more what are the possibly fossils occur in this theory Theory was not accepted by scientists

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