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DAILY
CLASS NOTES
Geography

Lecture - 06
Continental Drift Theory
(part 02)
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Continental Drift Theory (part 02)

Postulates of a Wegener Theory:

 These existed a supercontinent known as Pangea surrounded by a super ocean

Panthalsa during carboniferous times(300 MYA).

 Pangea means all continental landmass.

 The remnant of Panthalsa is present day Pacific Ocean(oldest ocean of the earth).

 He did not tell anything about the origin of this huge landmass.

Pangea:

Note:The origin of earth 4.5 bn years from present.

 The origin of crust 3.5 bn years ago

 Carboniferous period 300 mn years ago

 He did not tell anything about the period between Carboniferous(300 mya) and the

origin of crust.

 He did not explain anything before Carboniferous.

 Wegner took the Idea of Edward Suess,who had said that SIAL(Continents) is floating

over the SIMA(Ocean floor).

 Today,we know that the ocean and continents are part of the Lithosphere which

floats over the Asthenosphere.

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 According to Wegner the Pangea was the southern hemisphere.Somewhere near the

southern temperate and polar region.

 During the Mesozoic times(Triassic,Jurassic,Cretaceous pd) near 225 mn years ago

The Pangea started to break.

 Initially it broke into 2 large blocks of landmass:

(a) The Northern part was named Lauratia.

(b) The southern part was Gondwanaland.

(c) These landmass were separated by a shallow water body named as Tethys Sea.

 These landmass broke further and drifted away the direction of drift of these broken

landmass were Northward & Westward.

 Northward=Eurasia,Africa,India

 Westward=North America,South America

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Evidences of support of his theory(given by Wegner Himself):

1. Jigsaw fit of the continent:(match of the shape of continents)

 The continent of Africa and South America fits together perfectly.

 This was already postulated by Fracis Bacan and Benjamin Franklin.

 Wegner picked the idea & represented it to support his theory.

2. Structural Fit:

 Match of the structure of rocks of the continents.

(a)

(b)
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(c)

The structure of the rocks found on the eastern and western coast of the Atlantic

ocean perfectly matches.

For Example:

 Borborema plateau of Brazil matches with the Fouta Djallon & Coma Mts of

North west Africa.

 Caledonian and Hercynian mountain ranges of North America and Europe

match.

 Coalfields of Applachian match with Coalfield of Pennine mountains of Britain.

3. Placer Deposits:

 Wegner solved the puzzle of placer deposits and their source by his theory in

which he said that both South America and Africa was once a part of

Gondawanaland.

4. Fossils Evidence:

 Before Wegner gave his theory,many scholars have done mapping of distribution

of Fossils.

 But they could not explain this peculiar distribution of fossils.

 However Wegner explained it convincingly and made these as his evidence.He

solved the mystery of this peculiar distribution of fossils.

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 He said that all these continents were once a part of Gondawanaland where the

lileform evolved.This Gondwanalandṣ broke & the parts got drifted along with

which the fossils also got drifted.

5. Evidence of Paleoclimate(most imp.evidence):

 Wegner noticed Climatic Anomaly.In the Northern Temperate regions the

evidence of warmer regions are found like Coalfield of

Germany,Siberia,Russia,Canada,Great Britain,Applachian of USA.

 Warmer regions have Glacial Tillite deposits for example:Durban(South

Africa),Talcher of Odisha.

 Warmer climate regions have evidence of colder climate whereas coldest climate

regions have evidence of warm climates.This is a climatic anomaly.

 Wegner explained that Pangea was a Southern Hemisphere.

 so ,The present day Northern Temperate region was actually situated in the

Tropical Areas.

 Whereas The Present Day tropical areas were once located in the Southern

Temperate & Southern Polar Region.

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Criticism:

1. During Mechanism of Drift:

 Forces responsible for the Drift?

 Wegner has no credible answer so he picked Taylor's explanation.

2. Forces:

 Tidal Forces(Westward Drift):Gravitational forces of Sun & Moon.Since the

amount of tidal force is way less to attract the continents,the force got rejected.

 Centre of Gravity & force of Buoyancy(Equator./Northward)

 This force also got rejected.

 His theory of drift was declined.

3. Mechanism of Mountain Building:

 His idea of mountain building was incorrect.

 Fold Mountains are formed as the SIMA is scrapped by SIAL leading to the

accumulation of ocean sediments.

 SIAL is facing obstruction by SIMA due to friction.

 In reality the fold mountains are formed by the accumulation of sediments but it

is because of the Collision of Plates.

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4. Formation of Islands:

 Wegner thought the Islands are the broken part which was left behind due to the

faster movement of North and West parts of the Continents.

 However,Islands can be formed anywhere and have various forms & processes.

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