CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

Describe the Continental Drift Theory by Alfred Wegener

Jude Vincent G. Lumbao Genelyn Vega

11-Philanthropy 11-Philanthropy

Submitted To:
Divine Soneja

Date Submitted:
November
 WHO IS ALFRED WEGENER?

 Alfred Wegener was a German Meteorologist and Geophysicist who was an expert in the
weather and atmosphere in the polar regions.
 He used kites and tethered balloons to study the polar atmosphere during his 1906
expedition to Greenland’s unmapped northeast coast.
 He sometimes flies the tethered balloons to see or experience what is happening in the
upper region.

WHAT ARE THE 4 EVIDENCE THAT HE USED FOR THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT
THEORY?

 EVIDENCE #1
JIGSAW FIT, MATCHING CONTINENT
The jigsaw fit theory is a concept that describes how the coastlines of some continents appear to
fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Alfred Wegener, the proponent of the continental drift
theory, observed that the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa seemed to fit
together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and their rock layers also matched clearly.

 EVIDENCE #2
MOUNTAIN BELTS
Wegener discovered that the Appalachian Mountains and Caledonian Mountains are of the
same type, have the same age, and have the same mineral composition.
  EVIDENCE #3
FOSSIL EVIDENCES
Wegener investigated living things and found fossil records that support his theory. One of them
is the Mesosaurus and Glossopteris.

 MESOSAURUS

 The Mesosaurus is a freshwater reptile that lived during the early Permian period
(between 286 and 258 million years ago) and is found solely in Southern Africa and
Eastern South America.

 GLOSSOPTERIS

 Glossopteris is a genus of extinct seed plants that lived in the Permian Period across the
supercontinent Gondwana.
 Glossopteris was found in South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica.

Wegener stated that Antarctica was once hot. Antarctica is at the South Pole and it's possible that
in the past, it was near the equator where it is hot, and glossopteris will grow.
  EVIDENCE #4

GLACIAL STRIATIONS

Glacial striations are a series of long, straight, parallel lines or grooves scratched onto a bedrock
surface by rock fragments lodged in the base of a moving glacier.

Glaciers are large masses of ice that form on land by the recrystallization of snow or other forms
of solid precipitation and that show evidence of past or present flow.

WHERE DID WEGENER FIND GLACIAL STRIATIONS?

South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia have glacial striations.