Continental Drift & Plate Movement

Look at South America and Africa. Anything you notice? Do they look like they could fit together like puzzle pieces?

The continents have been shifting

Alfred Wegener was a German scientist that proposed The Continental Drift Theory in 1912.

The theory that Earth’s continents slowly move is called The Continental Drift Theory.

Pangaea was the most recent of a succession of supercontinents that have formed and broken up over time. Scientists believe this supercontinent occurred 200 million years ago.

If a fossil is found multiple places in the world, what have scientists hypothesize might have happened a long time ago? They were once on a single continent that has separated.

Evidence of Continental Drift 1 - Fossils – ancient reptile found in South America and Eastern Africa

Evidence of Continental Drift 2 - Geology - The continents seem to fit together like a puzzle & same type of rock found in South America and in Africa

Evidence of Continental Drift 3 - Climate – Greenland now lies in the Arctic Circle and is covered in ice but has fossils of tropical plants.

The Theory of Plate Tectonics is the theory that states that Earth’s lithosphere is made up of huge plates that move over the surface of Earth.

Lithospheric plates constantly move.

At the edges or boundaries of the plates, Earth's crust is in motion.

Moving plates cause major changes in a world map over tens of millions of years.

Plate movement causes major geologic events such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain formation.

Why do you scientists think ocean fossils are sometimes found on the tops of mountains? Seafloor has been raised by tectonic plate movement

North American plate consists of both continental and oceanic crust.

The theory of plate tectonics connects the evidence for the formation, movement, and destruction of the plates.

Some changes in the earth’s surface are abrupt such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions while other changes happen very slowly such as uplift and wearing down of mountains.

Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from tectonic plate movement.