Evidence of continental drift

Answer 1

Continental Drift was devised by Alfred Wegener.

Evidence would be:

1. Deposition of glacial tills in the southern continents and how they match when connected together.

2. Location of terrestrial fossils e.g. Mesosaurus which fossils can be found in South America and Southern Africa which were once connected.

3. Locations of old mountain chains e.g. Caledonians.

4. Location of fossil deserts, swamps and salt lakes.

5. Palaeomagnetism where lava which contains iron which is magnetic solidified marking the position of magnetic north in the lava. When the rocks which were formed from the solidified magma it was found that the rocks didn't point to what is now magnetic north proving that the continents must have moved so that the rocks could have at one point pointed north.

Answer 2

It is easily possible to see how the western coast line of Africa could fit into the eastern coast line of South America, and other such matches can be found in many locations, but aside from the similarity of shapes, close examination of the fossil record, the mineral content, and every other aspect of the ground shows that these areas that have matching shapes also have matching histories, up to a certain point when they started to drift apart. Aside from that, it is very clear from our studies of earthquakes and volcanoes that plate tectonics is a valid theory. The continents really do drift.