Evidence of techtonic Plates

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The evidence in the Theory of Plate Tectonics

In the 1900's many scientists believed that the earth has and always had been cooling down since the "big bang" and that the earth's surface contracted and wrinkled like the skin of a raisen. This "raisen" theory implied that mountain ranges and hills were once leveled to the ground but had been forced up by the 'wrinkling process'.

This theory was later challenged by Alfred Wegener, a German geophysicist and meteorologist who was not satisfied by this explanation. His ideas drew on the widely recognized fact that the continent, Africa and South America appeared to fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. He soon collected data from the continents on both sides of the Atlantic, finding that many fossils and rock types along the eastern coast of South America matched those on the western coast of Africa!

This evidence caused Wegener to join the continents using a map and find an explanation.

When he added the northern continents to the puzzle, Wegener realized that the chain of Appalachian Mountains in North America continued as the Caledonian Mountains in northern Europe. After this he found evidence of