Alfred Wegener, Pangea, And
The Evidence For Continental
Drift.
Tyler Young
Amesbury 4th
Sep. 21, 2015
Alfred Wegener
• Alfred Lothar Wegener (nov, 1, 1880 - 1930) was a German polar
researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist.
• He is most remembered as the original theorist of the theory of
continental drift by hypothesizing that the continents are slowly
drifting around the Earth.
• His theory was disproved due to his “non-popularity” and the
scientists that had disproved him were some of the greatest
geophysical minds of the century.
Pangea
• Pangea is the theory that all the continents were once (millions of
years ago) all perfectly put together as one giant land mass and after
millions of more years they had separated and detached from each
other.
• Pangea cant exactly be “proved” but the theories strong point is that
all the continents seem to fit to each other like a puzzle piece.
• Other points to the theory were the fossils from millions of years old
animals, rocks, insects, etc. found on complete opposite sides of the
world and if it weren’t for Pangea these fossils would have to swim
thousands of miles across oceans and seas and that seems unlikely.
Evidence of Continental Drift
• As stated before the theory of continental drift has strong points of
evidence one being the physical feature, how all of the continents, for
the most part, fit together like puzzle pieces for example, Africa and
South America.
• For example, the rock layers that form the Appalachian mountains of
the Eastern U.S. matched with those in Scotland. Rocks in Alaska
contain fossil palm tree leaves, though there have not been palm
trees at that area for a very long time so, he stated that the
continents must “drift” around the Earth, sometimes colliding with
each other.
Convection, Conduction, and Radiation
• During convection magma rises and spreads the sea floor. At the
boundary between the plates, the ocean floor sinks, but at the same
time is pushing against the continents. At the plates move, most of
the geological structures and events we are familiar with occur,
including earthquakes and volcanoes. Plate tectonics a major theory
explaining the way our planet operates and moves about