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Plate Tectonics: Presented by Group 4

Continental drift was first proposed in the early 1900s by Alfred Wegener, who argued that the continents were not stationary but slowly moving apart over geological time. Wegener presented evidence like the matching edges of continents, fossil and rock patterns, and shifting climate belts. His idea was initially rejected but gained acceptance when additional evidence was found in the 1940s-50s, including paleomagnetism and the discovery of seafloor spreading and convection currents in the Earth's mantle. By the 1970s, plate tectonics was established as the dominant theory to explain how continents shift positions due to movement of tectonic plates at the Earth's surface.

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Jeristelle Arcal
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45 views11 pages

Plate Tectonics: Presented by Group 4

Continental drift was first proposed in the early 1900s by Alfred Wegener, who argued that the continents were not stationary but slowly moving apart over geological time. Wegener presented evidence like the matching edges of continents, fossil and rock patterns, and shifting climate belts. His idea was initially rejected but gained acceptance when additional evidence was found in the 1940s-50s, including paleomagnetism and the discovery of seafloor spreading and convection currents in the Earth's mantle. By the 1970s, plate tectonics was established as the dominant theory to explain how continents shift positions due to movement of tectonic plates at the Earth's surface.

Uploaded by

Jeristelle Arcal
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PLATE TECTONICS

PRESENTED BY GROUP 4
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
• In the 1900’s, German meteorologist by the name of Alfred
Wegener was the first to present an argument supporting
continental drift. He proposed that the continents were not
stationary, but actually moving or drifting away from one
another. His primary sources of evidence included the fit of the
continents, glacial till deposits, and the apparent shifting of
climatic belts over time. His colleagues at the time argued for
polar wandering as an explanation of his data. These ideas were
not well accepted until later scientists in the 1940’s and 50’s
expanded on this ideas adding to them paleomagnetism,
convection currents and seafloor spreading. With all these new
evidence, plate tectonic theory become an accepted theory in
the 1970’s.
• Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents
shift position on Earth's surface.
• Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface.
EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORT THE CONTINENTAL
DRIFT THEORY
1. Wegener notice that the continents seemed to fit together, not
at the continuously changing shoreline, but at the edge to their
continental shelves. He derived the hypothesis from the
observation that the continents in the southern hemisphere
exhibit an identical pattern at rock and fossils know as the
“Gondwana sequence”. The most logical explanation was that
the continents themselves were once part of a mush larger
“super-continent” which was named Pangaea
• 2.
SEAFLOOR SPREADING
HOW THE SEAFLOOR SPREADS
STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF OCEAN BASINS
HOW THE MOVE LEADS TO THE FORMATION OF FOLDS,
FAULTS, TRENCHES, VOLCANOES, RIFT VALLEYS, AND
MOUNTAIN RANGES

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