Evidence Surrounding The Idea Of Tectonic Plates

Even though the scientific community was slow to grasp the idea of tectonic plates, in the late fifteen hundreds foundation evidence was found followed by further information which lead us to believe what we know today as the tectonic plate theory. The theory explains that the earths crust is divided into several tectonic plates , it looks at the way plates shift and interact with each other and explains how tectonic plates are reasons for many of earths natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. Science shows that tectonic plates are also responsible for many of the earths geographical features like the Himalayan mountains. It is believed that a shift in the plates thousands of years ago was the cause of the split of our

Abraham was the creator of the first modern day atlas and was also the man to suggest that the continents were once joined as a supercontinent now known as Pangea. He noted that the coastlines of most countries fitted almost perfectly and therefore must have been once connected (BBC,2014). Coal deposits and fossil distribution helped scientists build further evidence already astablished earlier on conjoined continents theory. Mountain ranges in Europe and spreading seaflooors in the major oceans is also another strong set of evidence that seemed to remove any doubt that this theory was incorrect and these natural occurring events couldn’t have happened. Still many scientists argued against Ortelius and it wasn’t until 1616 when Nicolas Steno a geologist of the time, introduced the logical new theory known as the 'Law of Superposition'. The Law of Superposition states that untouched layers of rock are arranged in time sequence, the top layer is the youngest and the bottom layer is the oldest (study,2018).This concept was then further researched by James Hutton a geologist in 1785. Hutton went on to creating, Uniformitarianism. This was the concept explaining the features of the Earth’s crust by means of natural processes over a long period of time. This was able to provide scientists with more evidence explaining Pangea and the Earths tectonic

Wegener continued research earlier done by Ortelius and Nicolas Steno to discover that fossils from the same time period appear in different continents. He tracked the movement of the continents back three hundred million years ago to conclude that the continents were once one major land mass, known as Pangea (bbc,2014). Although Alfred was not able to find reasons as to how they were able to move Arthur Holmes was the one to finally put his finger on it. In 1919 Holmes realised that the continents were able to be carried by the flow of the mantle on which they sat on and the mantle is flowing because it is convecting. This then lead scientists to the introduction of convection currents. Over time the continued movement of the plates due to the convection currents would have forced 'Pangea' to break apart over a long period of time and move into the separate continents we know of today (Ocean Explorer,