ESS Continental Drift Notes

1. The Theory of
Continental Drift

2. Who was Alfred Wegner?
• German Meterologist

3. Theory of Continental Drift
• Proposed in 1912; the hypothesis that states that the
continents once formed a single land mass (Pangea); that
broke up and drifted to their current locations

4. What was Wegner’s Evidence?
• Shape of the continents
• Fossil evidence on both sides
of the Atlantic
• Rock formation/mountains
on both sides of the Atlantic
• Climatic Evidence (i.e.
evidence of glaciers in desert
regions)

5. Problem with Wegner’s Theory
• He could not come up with the mechanisms and/or process
that caused the continents to move

6. What was the missing evidence?
• Knowledge of mantle
convection
• Evidence of sea floor spreading
at Mid-Ocean Ridges
• Symmetric paleomagnetism on
either side of the Mid-Ocean
Ridge