Rovielyn S. Ramos Sir.

Frederick Rael

1BSN2 Readings in the Philippine History

The Pangea Theory

We can really think about how the world was formed, you may also wonder

how there are so many continents in this world. If indeed this world already

has a few continents? Or was it even once a huge continent only? are you

also one of those who is curious or intrigued about every continent in our

country? Now we're going to answer every question the continents we are

talking about. Have you ever heard or read an article about the continent?

There are so many theories about our continent around the world, but there is

only one thing that has aroused me this is the Pangea theory. Many people

are amazed and fascinated by this theory because it really seems like the

historical events of the seven continents of the world the explanation here in

the formation of Pangea is that it began with the modern theory of plate

tectonics that the outer shell of the Earth was broken into several plates that

slide over the rocky shell of the Earth, and that is the mantle. So, what is

Pangea? Well, the Earth we see today didn’t appear to look like this over 240

million years ago as it didn’t have seven continents. But, instead one giant

super continent called Pangea meaning all lands, which was surrounded by a

single ocean called Panthalassa. All the countries lived harmoniously with

each other until great break-up or we called split up began to happen, which is

known as Continental drift as the continents slowly drifted to their current

positions on Earth’s surface. This theory was proposed by a scientist named

Alfred Wegener in the year 1912 as he explained the similarities between the

continents. He showed us how the South American and African contain fossils

Animals like mesosaurus in areas that match up across the ocean. He further

explained that it is physically impossible for these reptiles to swim across the

Atlantic ocean. Thus, we can say that these animals lived within the rivers and

lakes of a single habitat that later broke apart. He also showed how the

ancient rocks on the Brazilian coast also matched those found in West Africa.

And also explained the presence of similar plants in different continents. But,

the scientific community was not entirely convinced by Wegner’s evidence

due to the lack of a mechanism for how it works. So, later the theory

continental drift was replaced by the science of plate tectonics. Although, the

scientific community is still trying to figure out the driving force behind this

movement. But, what we surely know is these tectonic plates move in different

ways, at the point they meet or interact is called boundaries that have created

the world that we know today. The first type of interaction is Convergent

boundaries, In this process, the plates move towards each other, and when

they collide, the land is push upward to form massive mountains. The second

type of interaction is called the Divergent boundary in which two plates move

apart. In this process, the space between the two plates widens and becomes

a massive rift such as Mid Atlantic ridge between South America and Africa.

The third interaction called Transform boundaries, in which the earth’s plate

slide past each other in opposite directions. The grinding of the transformation

boundaries can create pressure that could lead to many earthquakes like

what happens in San Andreas fault.