ANSWER KEY: Exit Slip #2: Earthquakes
(answers will vary~bulleted list of possible AND acceptable answers here)
1. What is Pangaea?
*The super continent, Greek meaning “all lands” from 200 million years ago that split up and
became our seven continents of today;
*Continental drift states the Earth's continents were once joined in a single large land mass and
this land mass is Pangaea according to Scientist Wegner.
2. What is Gondwanaland?
*Scientist Suess's name for the Super Continent;
*Suess coined the term Gondwanaland for a former continent made up of central and southern
Africa, Madagascar, and peninsular India.
3. How are the 2 above mentioned phenomena alike?
*Both ideas/hypothesis show the Earth having a large “Super Continent” @ 200 mya (million
years ago);
*Similar fossils have been found on the different continents of today; hence supporting the idea
today's continents were once somehow connected.
4. What are Laurasia and Gondwana?
*Under Wegner's Theory of Plate Tectonics, Pangaea was the Super Continent. When it split up
the northerncontinent/s were Laurasia and the southern continents were named Gondwana.
5. What does paleomagnetism have to do with plate tectonics?
*Paleomagnetism is used to find the ages of the ocean floor basalts. It dates fossils (radioactive
dating) and it outlined the continental plates and locations of similar fossils and rock types found
on different continents indicating they were once somehow connected.
**BONUS: Why do most scientists today accept the Wegner's theory?
In the late 1960s much new evidence pertaining to sea-floor spreading emerged; hence,
supporting the theory. Today there is an abundance of convincing evidence to support Wegner's
theory.