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The continents do not "drift" in the usual sense of the word. They are held tightly together on the numerous plates, and move because they are being pushed, squeezed, and/or lifted. At no time are they free to move about with no other plates packed around them.

Continental Drift is a theory developed in the 1900s by a German scientist named Alfred Wegner. He believed that the continents all fitted together at one point and published a book explaining it in 1915. He believed that the Earth 200 million years ago had one large landmass, aka Pangaea. His theory stated that the Earth's continents split up over time to create the continents we know today. He believed that this could be proven, and found a 250 million seed fern whose seeds could not travel long distances (not over oceans). Wegner died in a blizzard in Antarctica looking for the fern after he found it on other continents. Not until the 1960's did scientists find the fossil evidence to be good enough to prove that all land was joined at one point in time. Sea-floor spreading is another phenomena that science finds to be proof of Pangaea.

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What is the very slow movement of the continents is called?

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