Continental drift, largescale horizontal movements of continents relative to one another and to the ocean basins during one or more episodes of geologic time. Continental drift theory cdt continental drift refers to the movement of the continents relative to each other. The reaction to alfred wegeners theory tells us much about the workings of science. Then, in the early 1900s, scientists came up with a possible answer to why this might be so. Continental drift read earth science ck12 foundation. For many years, scientists have noticed this possibility. There are more than 1 million books that have been enjoyed by people from all over the world. He thought the force of earths spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true. Illuminates wegeners continental drift hypothesis and his supporting evidence including the distribution of fossils, rocks, structures, and the climate zones. Alfred wegener proposed that the continents were once united into a single supercontinent named pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient greek. Pdf alfred wegenerfrom continental drift to plate tectonics. A brief overview of the theory of continental drift and the evidence supporting it. It appears that despite the criticism, alfred wegener was correct all along.
Continental drift plates in the crust of the earth, according to the plate tectonics theory from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia continental drift is the movement of the earths continents relative to each other. A brief introduction to alfred wegeners theory of continental drift, which would lay the groundwork for the development of plate tectonic theory, which essentially explains the geology of the. He suggested that pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to their current positions. Theory of continental drift ebook download free pdf. Continental drift germantown municipal school district. Get ebooks theory of continental drift on pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi and audiobook for free. Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on earths surface. Wegener claimed the advantage for his hypothesis of continental drift that it could be tested by making repeated astronomical observations of the positions of land stations. Polar wandering similar to continental drift theory polar wandering is the relative movement of the earths crust and upper mantle with respect to the rotational poles of the earth. Set forth in 1912 by alfred wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift also. This evidence shows that continental drift happens at an extremely slow pace. According to wegeners continental drift theory, all the continents were one single continental mass called a super continent pangaea and a mega ocean surrounded this supercontinent. In 1912, alfred wegener proposed a theory that the continents had once been joined, and over time had drifted apart. Always update books hourly, if not looking, search in the book search column.
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