Quick Summary Question Answers
1. You would cross the Atlantic Ocean when going from N. America to Europe.
2. Just north of Antarctica is the Southern Ocean.
3. Leaving northern Canada, heading towards the North Pole, you would travel over the Arctic
Ocean.
4. The CORE’S heat is responsible for heating the mantle rock making it molten and moving the
plates.
5. Mantle rock begins to sink back towards the lower mantle when it is cooled near the crust.
6. If the core cooled down many things would be different…no plate movement, no earthquakes,
no volcanic eruptions, magma would eventually harden into intrusive igneous rock, magnetic field
would cease to be…etc
7. Wegener’s evidence used to explain plate movement:
1. Land features:
A. Puzzle fit of continents
B. Mountain ranges match up on S. Am & Africa
C. Coal fields in N. Am & Europe match up
2. Fossil evidence:
A. Fossils of land creatures were found on different continents
B. The creatures could not swim so they had to be on the same land at some point
3. Climate evidence:
A. Ferns which grew in tropical climates were found in COLD areas like Antarctica.
B. Glacier scratches were found in S. Africa which is NOT a cold area now
8. Wegener had difficulty convincing others that he was correct about the Continents Drifting
because he had to piece together lots of evidence from many areas, no one could time travel and
witness the movement, he could not show what would push & pull the continents.
9. Pangaea was what Wegener called his idea of a SUPER CONTINENT.
10. Convection currents move the plates (Convection is the type of heat transfer – movement of
heat through a liquid or gas).
11. Hess’ Sea-floor Spreading showed the plates in the ocean moved apart and added new ocean
floor (new ocean floor is near the ridge…older rock is found farther away from the ridge). Rock
samples, drilling samples, and magnetic stripes in the ocean floor gave him proof.