The Continental Drift

Theory
Alfred
Wegener
- German physicist
- presented his
Continental Drift
Theory to the
German Geological
Society
- gathered evidences
from fossils, rock
structures, and
• All continents were compressed all together in single mass referred as
supercontinent “Pangaea.”
• 300 million years ago, parts of the supercontinent drift into separate
continents.
• The separation was caused by a driving mechanism which Wegner was not
able to present at his time.
Pangaea and
Panthalassa
 Pangaea Panthalassa
• From greek word “pan” • “pan” meaning “all”
which means “all”.
• “thalassa” meaning
• “gaea” means “land” “sea”
• The Northern part of
Pangaea is called
“Laurasia”
• Southern part of
Pangaea is called
“Gondwanaland”
Early Ideas of
Continental
Movement
Abraham
Ortelius
- First who
noted the
Noticeable
feet of
South
America
Eduard
Suess
- Austrian
geologist
- suggested
that their
may have
been bridges
that
Roberto
Mantovani

- Noted the
similarities
in
geological
formations
Evidences for
Continental
Drift
A. Evidence from
Fossils
Identical fossils are found in
south America and Africa:
•Glossopteris
•Mesosaurus
•Cynognathus
•Lystrosaurus
 Glossopteris
- glossa, meaning "tongue", because the leaves
were tongue-shaped, and pteris, (Greek for
fern or feathery) is the largest and best-
known genus of the extinct order of seed ferns
known as Glossopteridales.
 Mesosaurus
- an extinct genus of reptile from
the Early Permian of southern
Africa and South America.
 Cynognathus
- an extinct genus of large-bodied
cynodontian therapsids that lived in the
Middle Triassic. It is known from a
single species, Cynognathus
crateronotus.
 Lystrosaurus
- herbivorous genus of Late Permian
and Early Triassic Period dicynodont
therapsids, which lived around 250
million years ago.
B. Evidences from Climate
Mismatches

-Discovery of the fossils of

tropical plants in Antarctica
C. Evidences from Glaciers
-Glaciers leave marks on
the surface called Glacial
Grooves.
-Glaciers are found near the
poles but there were some
D. Evidences from Rocks
-Identical rocks were
found on both sides of
the Atlantic ocean
E. Evidences from Mountain
Ranges
-The Appalachian Mountains
in the eastern side of North
America are similar to the
mountain ranges of
Greenland, Ireland, Scotland,
Problem with
the Theory
 Although Wegner
presented evidences, the
weakness of the theory have
been that he was not able to
present a process that could
 Seafloor
Spreading
Harry Hammond
Hess
- an American
geologist who
published a
hypothesis
based on
Holmes mantle
convention
Seafloor Spreading
-Mantle convection causes seafloor
spreading which explains the movement
of the earth’s continents.
Symmetrical Seafloor Patterns
Frederick Vine and
Drummond Mathew's, British
geologists, notices
symmetrical patterns of
magnetic stripes on either side
of mid-ocean ranges.
Movement of
plates
Faults
Trenches
Volcanoes
Rift valleys
Mountain ranges
Divergent Plate
Boundary
Structure and Evolution of Ocean
Basins
-A new crust is created as the
plates move away from each
other
-Creates ocean basins
Convergent Plate
Boundaries
-The plates collide with each other
-When oceanic plate collides with
continental plate, one of the two will
sink and this is called subduction
-This movement creates trenches and
volcanoes.
 Trenches
-The deepest parts of the
ocean floor
-Marianas Trench is the
 Volcanoe
s
Oceanic crust subducts beneath
continental plate remains solid up to
100 km beneath the earth’s surface.
When it sinks deeper, the temperature
and pressure gets higher and releases
 Mountain
Ranges
-A continental plate may
collide with another
continental plate
-Both have the same rock
composition as well as
 Rift
Valleys

A rift valley is a lowland

region forms where
Earth’s tectonic plates
 Faults
Formed in the Earth’s crust as a brittle
response to different types of stress
namely:
• Compression - set of stress directed toward
the center of a rock mass.
• Tension - fault produced by the pulling apart
of the sides of a fissure in the earth' s crust.
 Types of
Faults

• Normal Fault
• Reverse Fault
• Tear fault