Explain The Lines Of Evidence That Support Continental Drift

Lines of Evidence Supporting Continental Drift There are five lines of evidence that supports continental drift. These include continental fit, similarities of rock sequences, mountain ranges, fossil evidence and glacial evidence. Continental drift was recognized as a solid theory in the mid-nineteen sixty’s. Continental drift was first discovered by Alfred Wegener, a meteorologist, who suggested that all land masses were at one time joined together. This was called Pangea, a Greek work meaning all land. His ideas were based on research that he was gathering in geology, climatology and paleontology. His viewpoint included a series of maps presenting the movement of the continents and the eventual breakup of the Pangea to their current positions. His concepts were not received well throughout the scientific community. Another geologists Alexander du Toit, picked up the research that Wegener started and gathered more evidence to prove continental drift. His developments included looking at the glacial deposits in the Gondwana and coal deposits of the same age from the Northern Hemisphere and found they differed because of the climate regions. He took the Gondwana land masses (South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica) and moved them to the South Pole and placed the Northern lands called Laurasia (North

This view had already been studied by Wegener and du Toit, but they could not come up with an accurate way to prove their theory. However, in 1965, Sir Edward Bullard, an English geophysicist was able to show a direct fit to the continents by looking at the continental slope along the coastal region of the continents. He discovered the best method to measure and prove this thought was to measure the continental slope at a depth of 2000 meters. At this depth, you find proof that the continents were at one time all