Continental Drift - the evidence that supports the theory.

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Continental Drift Fact or Fiction?

First proposed by Alfred Wegener the meteorologist, the theory of continental drift supports the belief that the Earth's continents once were a single land mass. This land mass, which was named "Pangaea", broke up, and its various parts drifted away from one another.

Centuries ago, trips around the world from travellers showed out lines from every continent around the world. Later on, early mapmakers wondered why these continents fit together so well. Early geologist thought at first that the continents had started off in their places they laid in the present day. However, a meteorologist constructed a theory that would change the way people would look at the world. The Theory of Continental Drift is a theory that proves that the continents were once joined together making only one single landmass. This theory was proposed by a meteorologist by the name of Alfred Wegener. His theory states that the continents were once one and have drifted apart. Wegener named this land mass “Pangaea”, which translates “All Lands” Then he gathered evidence from around the world from landforms, fossils, and climate. He then gathered his evidence and put it in a book titled “The Origin of Continents and Oceans” which was published in 1915. But Wegener’s theory was rejected because he could not provide evidence on the force that moved the continents.

The Earth has a magnetic field that causes a compass needle to always point toward the North magnetic pole, currently located near the rotation pole. The Earth's magnetic field is what would be expected if there were a large bar magnet located at the centre of the Earth. The magnetic field is composed of lines of force. Initial studies of the how the position of the Earth's magnetic pole varied with time were conducted in Europe. These studies showed that the magnetic pole had apparently moved through time. When similar measurements were made on rocks of various ages in North America, however, a different path of the magnetic pole was found.

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This either suggested that (1) the Earth has had more than one magnetic pole at various times in the past (not likely), or (2) that the different continents have moved relative to each other over time. Studies of ancient pole positions for other continents confirmed the latter hypothesis, and seemed to confirm the theory of Continental Drift.

Exploration of the seafloor had been in progress at a slow but gradually accelerating pace during the nineteenth century and the first four decades of this century. There was a rapid increase in geological and geophysical exploration of the seafloor after the Second ...

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