CONTINENTS SPLIT

zeina al sadder – sham abu khalaf – sewar obeid –

hala fraihat
 INTRODUCTION

•There are seven continents that are recognized in the world. The
seven continents of the world are Asia, Africa, South America,
North America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica.
• The locations of the world's continents were drastically different
around 300 million years ago. In reality, there was only one
continent, not even seven. Pangea is the name of this one,
enormous supercontinent.

• sham
 INTRODUCTION

• Pangea was surrounded by a global ocean called

Panthalassa also known as the Panthalassa Ocean .
• Panthalassa is also referred to as the Paleo-Pacific ("old
Pacific") or Proto-Pacific because the Pacific Ocean is a
direct cont.

• sham
 INTRODUCTION

•Similar to how it was formed, Pangea started to fragment around 200 million years ago
due to tectonic plate movement brought on by mantle convection. The supercontinent
split as a result of new material moving away from rift zones, just as new material helped
construct Pangea. Scientists anticipate that in roughly 200-250 million years, the
continents will come together once more, much as our continents were once all
connected in the supercontinent known as Pangea (which split roughly 200 million years
ago). inuation of Panthalassa.

sham
•

•
 CONTINENTAL DRIFT HYPOTHESIS

•Definition : it’s the movement of the earths continents over geologic time
and appearing to drift across the ocean , This is called the Continental Drift
Theory and it was developed by the scientist Alfred Wenger.
•Wagner based his theory on three things:
- fit of the continents
- paleoclimate indicators
-truncated geologic features, and fossils
sewar
 FILL OF THE CONTINENTS

•Alfred Wenger noticed that the edges of the

continents of South America and Africa are
completely identical.

sewar
 PALEOCLIMATE INDICATORS

• Wegner noticed that there are polar ice caps in Africa,

South America and Australia
•truncated geologic features, and fossils
•On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in both South
America and Africa, Wegner noticed similar fossils, such as
the fossil of a reptile called Mesosaurus.
• sewar
TRUNCATED GEOLOGIC FEATURES, AND FOSSILS
WAS ALFERD WENGER’S THEORY
REJECTED?

Wenger’s theory was rejected because he never explained how

the continents moved , he gave us evidence that they moved but
never told us what factors made the continents spread apart from
each other .

zeina
• In WWII , the
scientist Harry hiss
noticed that there are
some cracks in the
middle of a chain of
volcanic mountains
in the middle of the
ocean floor.
• zeina
•
 WHY/HOW ARE THE CONTINENTS
SEPARATED?

• In the end harry hoss said that the reason why the continents
are separated from each other is the presence of seismic
activity that leads to the formation of a chain of volcanic
mountains in the middle of the ocean.
• We will also notice that there’s an increase in the ages of the
rocks on the sides of the mountain chains as we move away
from the middle of the ocean towards the continents.
zeina
 SEA FLOOR SPREADING

• In 1962 harry hess came to the conclusion that the ocean floor was
expanding , which means that the mid-ocean ridge is a large rifting
zone in the oceanic crust where the molten magma goes upwards .
Every time some magma goes up it cools down due to the exposure
of water , then it creates a new ocean crust which helps with the
separation of continents , all of this leads to sea floor spreading.

• zeina
 PLATES MOVEMENT

• The Ring of Fire is a region

around much of the rim of
the Pacific Ocean where
many earthquakes occur and
it is associated with the
movement of the plates. So
what is the plates movement?

• hala
 PLATES MOVEMENT

• Plate boundaries are of three

types, differing according to
the movement they show.1-
Divergent Boundaries

• An example of this
movement is the divergent
movement between the
African plate and the Arab
plate from which the Red Sea
emerged

• hala
 PLATES MOVEMENT

•2- Convergent Boundaries Formed when two plates come close to each other,
either when:
•A) A continental plate and another continental plate. Example : the Himalayas
resulting from the collision of the Indian plate (Australia) with the Eurasian plate.
•B) A continental plate with oceanic plate . Example: The rift that resulted from the
slide of the South Nazca Plate under the South American continental plate.
•C) An oceanic plate with another oceanic plate. It results in volcanic islands such
as Mirana Island
• hala
 PLATES MOVEMENT

• 3- Transform Boundaries occurs when one plate moves

sideways with reference to the other plate . Example : The Dead
Sea rift resulting from the transform movement between the
African plate in the south and the Arabian plate in the north.

• hala