What is the the continental drift theory?

Answer 1

Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other.

The theory was first proposed by Frank Bursley Taylor in 1908, at a meeting of the Geological Society of America. Prior to this, various notable scientists such as Abraham Ortelius, Francis Bacon, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini and Benjamin Franklin had observed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to fit together. The theory that all the continent had originally been part of a supercontinent - now referred to as Pangaea - was also supported by the similarities of fossil remnants and some geological formations across the southern continents.

The first to use the term continental drift was Alfred Wegener. He proposed that the cause of continental drift was the continents being been pulled apart by the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation, but this was considered unrealistic by other scientists. In the 1960s, geological research suggested the theory of plate tectonics, which accounted for the theory of continental drift. Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface. Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift also explained why look-alike animal and plant fossils, and similar rock formations, are found on different continents.

Wegener thought all the continents were once joined together in an "Urkontinent" before breaking up and drifting to their current positions. But geologists soundly denounced Wegener's theory of continental drift after he published the details in a 1915 book called "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." Part of the opposition was because Wegener didn't have a good model to explain how the continents moved apart.

Though most of Wegener's observations about fossils and rocks were correct, he was outlandishly wrong on a couple of key points. For instance, Wegener thought the continents might have plowed through the ocean crust like icebreakers smashing through ice.

"There's an irony that the key objection to continent drift was that there is no mechanism, and plate tectonics was accepted without a mechanism," to move the continents, said Henry Frankel, an emeritus professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of the four volume "The Continental Drift Controversy" (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Although Wegener's "continental drift" theory was discarded, it did introduce the idea of moving continents to geoscience. And decades later, scientists would confirm some of Wegener's ideas, such as the past existence of a supercontinent joining all the world's landmasses as one. Pangaea was a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago, and was responsible for the fossil and rock clues that led
The continental theory is when theory separates the colonist. This was made in the year 1912.

Answer 2

Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other.

The theory was first proposed by Frank Bursley Taylor in 1908, at a meeting of the Geological Society of America. Prior to this, various notable scientists such as Abraham Ortelius, Francis Bacon, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini and Benjamin Franklin had observed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to fit together. The theory that all the continent had originally been part of a supercontinent - now referred to as Pangaea - was also supported by the similarities of fossil remnants and some geological formations across the southern continents.

The first to use the term continental drift was Alfred Wegener. He proposed that the cause of continental drift was the continents being been pulled apart by the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation, but this was considered unrealistic by other scientists. In the 1960s, geological research suggested the theory of plate tectonics, which accounted for the theory of continental drift. Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface. Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift also explained why look-alike animal and plant fossils, and similar rock formations, are found on different continents.

Wegener thought all the continents were once joined together in an "Urkontinent" before breaking up and drifting to their current positions. But geologists soundly denounced Wegener's theory of continental drift after he published the details in a 1915 book called "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." Part of the opposition was because Wegener didn't have a good model to explain how the continents moved apart.

Though most of Wegener's observations about fossils and rocks were correct, he was outlandishly wrong on a couple of key points. For instance, Wegener thought the continents might have plowed through the ocean crust like icebreakers smashing through ice.

"There's an irony that the key objection to continent drift was that there is no mechanism, and plate tectonics was accepted without a mechanism," to move the continents, said Henry Frankel, an emeritus professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of the four volume "The Continental Drift Controversy" (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Although Wegener's "continental drift" theory was discarded, it did introduce the idea of moving continents to geoscience. And decades later, scientists would confirm some of Wegener's ideas, such as the past existence of a supercontinent joining all the world's landmasses as one. Pangaea was a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago, and was responsible for the fossil and rock clues that led
The continental theory is when theory separates the colonist. This was made in the year 1912.