Let’s Fit it!

Objectives:
 Find clues to solve a problem
Recognize how the Continental Drift
Theory is developed.

Materials:

Old newspaper or magazine

Scotch tape
Procedure:
1. Do this activity in a group of 6 to 7 members
2. Obtain a set of turn paper or magazine page from your teacher.
3. Try to fit the pieces together.
4. Use a tape to connect the pieces together.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
THEORY
Your notes need to include the following:

1.What is the continental drift theory

2.Who came up with the continental drift
theory
3.What was the evidence to support the
theory
The Theory of Continental Drift
The World
 ALFRED WEGENER
THEORY OF CONTINENTAL
DRIFT
Found evidence for
PANGAEA and
proposed the theory of
continental drift.
 Continental Drift

• Theory that continents were

once part of a single
landmass that broke apart
and have moved to their
present locations.

• can drift apart from one

another and have done so in
the past

For more information about what the continents looked like throughout the Earth’s
History go to:
htttp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html
 Pangaea
Pangaea is the name given to the single
landmass that was present 200 million
years ago
 WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
Evidence: The Continental Jigsaw Puzzle
Continents
“fit together”
like puzzle
pieces
 WEGENER’S EVIDENCE

Fossil Evidence
•fossils are remains
of living things that
lived long ago.
•similar fossils have
been discovered in
matching coastlines
on different
continents.
WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
 Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus

• Are freshwater reptiles. Fossils of these animals were

discovered in different continents, such as in the South
America and Africa. It is impossible for these reptiles to
swim over the vast oceans and move from one continent to
another. Fossils were also found in Antarctica. Could it be
possible that they existed in this region where temperature
was very low? Or could it be possible that, Antarctica was
not in its current position?
Glossopteris

Fossilized leaves of an extinct plant Glossopteris were found in 250 million years rocks. These
fossils were located in the continents of South Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica, which are now
separated from each other by wide oceans. The large seeds of this plant could not possibly travel a
long journey by the wide or survive a rough ride through ocean waves.
 WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
• Mountains
– Some mountain ranges on different continents
seem to match.
• Ex: ranges in Canada match Norway and Sweden
• Ex: Appalachian Mtn. match UK mtn
WEGENER’S
EVIDENCE
• Climatic evidence such as glaciers in
areas that are now close to the Equator
 Evidence of Continental Drift (today)
Satellites used to
measure the
movement of
continents

• Laser Geodynamics
Satellite (LAGEOS)
 The Plates Move…
So what now?
Which way?
• 50 million years
 THE QUESTION AS TO HOW THE DRIFTING
TOOK PLACE LEFT THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT
THEORY BLURRY.
• Despite the evidence presented by
Wegener, his idea that the continents were
once joined together was not accepted by
the scientific society until 1960s. He wasn’t
able to explain how this drifting took place.
This made scientist conduct further studies
in search for the answer.
 During 1950s and 1960s
• New techniques and modern gadgets
enabled scientists to make better
observations and gather new information
about the ocean floor. With the use of
sonars and submersibles, scientists had a
clearer view of the ocean floors. They
have discovered underwater features deep
within the ocean.
• Scientist found a system of ridges of
mountains in the seafloor similar to those
found in the continents. These are called
mid-ocean ridges. One of these is the
famous Mid- Atlantic Ridge,
an undersea mountain chain in
the Atlantic Ocean. It has a gigantic
cleft about 32-48 km. long and 1.6
km. deep. The ridge is offset by
fracture zones and rift valleys.
Sea Floor Spreading

EQ: What is the process

of sea-floor spreading?
Mid-Ocean Ridge

• Mid-Ocean Ridge:
The undersea
mountain chain
where new ocean
floor is produced; a
divergent plate
boundary
Mid Ocean Ridge
Sonar
• Sonar: A device that
determines the
distance of an
object under water
by recording echoes
of sound waves
The sonar is used to map the
ocean floor Sonar bounces
sound waves off
underwater
objects and
then records
the echoes of
these sound
waves
The time it takes
for the echo to
arrive indicates
the distance to
the object
Evidence for Sea-Floor
Spreading
In the 1960s, Harry Hess
examined maps of the mid
ocean ridge. He proposed that
the ocean floors move like
conveyor belts, carrying the
continents with them.
 Sea-Floor Spreading
The process
by which
molten
material
adds new
oceanic
crust to
the ocean
floor
 What evidence did scientists
find for sea-floor spreading in
the 1960s?
• Evidence from molten
material

• Evidence from magnetic

stripes

• Evidence from drilling

samples
Evidence From Molten Material
• Alvin’s crew found strange rocks shaped
like pillows or like toothpaste squeezed
from a tube

• Such rocks can form only when molten

material hardens quickly after erupting
under water

• The presence of these rocks showed that

molten material has erupted again and again
from cracks along the central valley of the
mid-ocean ridge.
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/explorer/concepts/pillow_lava.html
 Scientists discovered
that the rock that
makes up the ocean
floor lies in a pattern of
magnetized “stripes”
780,000 years ago,
magnetic poles reversed
themselves
• If they reversed
today, the needle
in a compass would
point south instead
Evidence From of north
Magnetic Stripes The rock in the ocean is
made of iron, which
began as molten
material
 Evidence From Drilling Samples

• When scientists sampled the rocks,

they found that the further away from
the ridge the rocks were the older they
were

• The younger rocks were always in the

center of the ridges
Subduction at Deep-Ocean
Trenches
• A deep Deep-Ocean Trenches
valley
along the
ocean floor
through
which
oceanic
crust
slowly
sinks
towards
the mantle
Subduction

• Subduction: The
process by which
oceanic crust sinks
through a deep-
ocean trench and
back into the
mantle; a
convergent plate
boundary
Guide For Reading: What
happens to the ocean floor at
deep ocean trenches?
• At deep-ocean trenches, two plates
collide causing the denser of the two
plates to dive back to the mantle.
This process is known as subduction.
• Over tens of million of years, this
material melts back into molten
material and may rise again as new
oceanic crust.
Guide For Reading: What is the
process of sea-floor spreading?

• At the mid-ocean ridge, molten material

rises from the mantle and erupts. The
molten material then spreads out, pushing
older rock to both sides of the ridge.
• Over tens of millions of years, the process
continues until the oldest ocean floor
collides with the continental crust
• The denser oceanic crust subducts (sinks)
back into the mantle at a deep-ocean
trench
Subduction and Earth’s
Oceans
 Subduction in the Pacific
Ocean
• Subduction in the Pacific Ocean is
occurring at a greater rate than sea-
floor is expanding

• This is caused by the large amount of

trenches
 Subduction in the Atlantic

• The Atlantic Ocean is expanding at a

greater rate than subducting

• This is because of the low number of

trenches in the Atlantic

• Over time the entire ocean gets

larger and pushes against the
continents
Seafloor Spreading and Subduction
keeps the shape of the Earth.