CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

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 Introductions to the Continental Drift
The Theory was postulated by Francis Bacon in
1960s.
 the continental drift theory was then advanced
by ALFRED LOTHAR WEGENER in 1912
He lived in 1880 to 1930.
The principal thought of continental drift theory
is that ‘the continents are situated on slabs of or
PLATE and they have drifted across the surface of
the earth over time.
However, originally they were all joined together
as a huge super continents at one time.
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 Introductions continue.........
The idea for Wegener’s theory was sparked by his
observation of the nearly perfect ‘fit’ of the south
America and west part of African continents.
Alfred Lothar Wegener proposed that all of the
continents once formed a ‘super continent’ called
‘pangea’.
The term ‘pangea’ is from greek language,
meaning that ‘pan’ means ‘all’ and ‘Gaea’ means
‘earth’
It was thought to have come together and
formed approximatelly 200 millions of year ago.
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 Mechanism of continental drift theory
Alfred Lothar Wegener postulated that about 280
millions of years ago, all present continents were
single landmass called ‘Pangea’, whereby; this pangea
was enclosed by water named “Panthalassa”.
Then about 200 millions of years ago, the single
landmass(pangea) spilt into two major landmass;
Northern landmass and southern landmass
The northern landmass was named as “Laurasia” and
the southern land was named as Gondwanaland.
These two major landmass was separated by a long
narrow sea named as “Tethys”.
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 Mechanism continue.....................
Thereafter; about 150 millions of years both
Laurasia and Gondwanaland broke up into several
small landmass called “continents”.
Wherby;Laurasia broke up to form Northern
America, Asia, Europe while Gonwanaland broke
up to form Africa, Australia, South America and
Antarctica as well as New zealand.

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 The evidences provided by Alfred Wegener to support
the theory of continental drift
The apparent fit of the continents
The coastlines of the continents appear to fit
together like the pieces of a puzzle. Example the
eastern part of South America seems to fit to the
Western part African continent.
Fossils correlation
The identical fossils have been found in the rocks on
either sides of the ocean at South America, West
Africa, Antarctica and Australia.

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 Fossils continue....................
• These fossils are the remains of both animals and
plants; Animals: like mesosaurus and
cynognathus
• Plant remains from fern glossopteris found in all
of the Southern continents, showing that were
formed when all continents were all joined
together.
• Fossils remains of cynognathus , a Triassic land
reptile approximately 3m long.

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 evidences provided by Alfred Wegener
Rock and mountain correlation
These refers to identical rocks and mountains
structure that have been found on either side of
the ocean at north America continent and
western part of Europe, as well as eastern brazil
and America; the rocks are similar in age,
composition and type.
Also Atlas mountain and Alps of south Europe are
same age, structure and alignment.

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 Evidences provided by Alfred Wegener
 Paleo climate data/past climate data
 The presence of glacial striations in central south
America and central America.
 The coal has been found in cold regions and glacial
evidence has been found in warm region, for
example the presence of bituminous coal that are
formed due to compacted plant remains found at
north America, south America and Antarctica. Also
glacial deposit in the Congo basin while it is warm
Note.
Wegener could not explain what forces was driving
the motion of the continents.
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 Other evidences supporting the theory of Continental Drift
Formation of the rift valley
The splitting and drifting of the continents have lead to
the formation of the rifting valley. For example east
Africa rifting valley.
Sea floor spreading
The study of harry Hess 1960s on the ocean floor
found that new rocks are being formed in the center
of the ocean and this has been due to the upwelling
of Magma.
The upwelling of magma has led to the widening of the
ocean crust like the Atlantic ocean.

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 Other evidences supporting the theory of Continental Drift
Paleo magnetism
This refers to paleo magnetic dating; whereby
when the rocks cooled they were magnetized in
the same direction (magnetic north).
The paleo magnetic dating shows that rock older
than 200,000 year ago from different parts of the
earth have shifted their relative positions.
Magnetic field are showing new paths
representing relative migration of the earth’s
materials.
This indicate that the continents have drifted.
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 Critiques of continental drift theory
1. Alfred Wegener meddled in the field of geology
 This was because Alfred Wegener was a
meteorologist not a geologist, that means he
had no enough knowledge to explain about
geology as far as he was dealing with
meteorology.
2. Misfit of some continents.
 Possibly not all continents fits exactly to each
other if they could be brought together. but
Wegener did not account on that aspect.
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 Critiques of continental drift theory
3. Wegener failed to explain the mechanism of drifting
the continent ; the forces that account for drifting
the continent to be apart.
 However he pressumed that tidal influence of the
moon gave the continents a westward motion(a
counter movement of the revolution of the earth)
 But according to Jeffrey's, a physicist that tidal
friction of such magnitude needed to displace the
continents would bring the earth’s rotation to a halt
in a matter up few years.
 The gravitational forces and centrifugal forces could
not be such sufficient to cause the movements of the
continents.
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 Critiques of continental drift theory
4. Existence of similar plant remains on both
continent
Some of the scientists argued that the existence
of similar plant remains might have been brought
by the aspect of wind blowing from one continent
to another continents.
5. The development of glacier in the hot region of
Australia
Alfred lothar Wegener, failed to explain the
existence and development of glaciers in the hot
arid Australia.
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 Impacts of Continental Drift.
The theory led to the formation of continents,
landforms like the rift valley, seas or ocean,
mountains like Alps and Atlas.
Occurrence of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
as a result of crustal deformation.
Climatic changes, e.g some continents moved to
the polar region and assumed very low
temperatures such as Antarctica and Greenland.
 Also folding has led to the elevation of the surface
leading to very low temperature on the Summit,
for example mount kilimanjaro peak and mount
Everest summit; it is very cold
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