– Deserts line up when continents are pushed together. – Mountain ranges often appear on the edges of continents.
- 1 What statements describe evidence of continental drift?
- 2 What pieces of evidence did Alfred Wegener have for his theory of continental drift select all that apply?
- 3 Which land feature supports the theory of continental drift?
- 4 Why mountain ranges in Africa and South America line up?
- 5 Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?
- 6 What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together gizmo?
- 7 What did Harry Hess discover?
- 8 Why did most scientists at the time rejected Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift?
- 9 What evidence of climate change on continents supports the theory of continental drift?
- 10 How the continents fit together?
- 11 Why did Alfred Wegener think the continents moved?
- 12 Are they situated along the edges of the continents?
- 13 When matching up once joined continents such as South America and Africa?
- 14 What continents are connected?
- 15 What other evidence supports that North and South America Europe and Africa once were connected?
- 16 What did Harry Hammond Hess realize in 1950?
- 17 Who discovered the great global rift?
- 18 Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea flooring?
- 19 Who helped prove Alfred Wegener’s theory?
- 20 How far do continents move every year?
- 21 What do Earth’s plates move on top of?
- 22 Which is the best evidence that two continents were once connected is that they have matching?
- 23 Who came up with the idea that all the continents were once joined together?
- 24 Who came up with the idea that the continents were once joined together?
- 25 Why was continental drift so controversial during Alfred Wegener’s time what explanation was necessary to support his hypothesis?
- 26 What does Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis state about the continents?
- 27 Why do continents move?
- 28 Do the continents fit together exactly?
- 29 Do all continents fit like a puzzle?
- 30 Which three continents contain coalfields that provide evidence for continental drift?
- 31 What are 5 pieces of evidence that support continental drift?
- 32 When did the continents get their current shape?
- 33 Why do South America and Africa fit together?
- 34 Why do Earth’s continents fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle?
- 35 How did the continents split?
- 36 Is Alfred Wegener’s theory true?
- 37 What landforms are the highest on the continents?
- 38 Do you believe in Wegener’s theory?
- 39 Are there 5 or 7 continents in the world?
- 40 What continent is Russia in?
- 41 Why are Europe and Asia separate continents?
- 42 Which 3 continents are connected together?
- 43 Are all continents connected underwater?
- 44 Are continents connected by land?
- 45 When did the continents split?
- 46 What evidence have scientists uncovered to show that Earth’s continents were once joined?
- 47 What was probably the first evidence that led people to think that the continents were once connected?
- 48 Why was Alfred Wegener’s theory accepted?
- 49 What did Harry Hess discover?
- 50 Who mapped the ocean floor in 1952?
- 51 What is Harry Hess’s theory?
- 52 What was Harry Hess contribution to plate tectonics?
- 53 Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?
- 54 Which continent moves the fastest?
What statements describe evidence of continental drift?
The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.
What pieces of evidence did Alfred Wegener have for his theory of continental drift select all that apply?
Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.
Which land feature supports the theory of continental drift?
Canyon supports the theory of continental drift.
Why mountain ranges in Africa and South America line up?
Answer: Continental drift is the correct answer.
Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?
Why was Wegener’s theory forgotten? He could not explain how the continents could move. Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea floor spreading? because of subduction the Pacific Ocean.
What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together gizmo?
Q. What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together? Similar rocks found on different continents.
What did Harry Hess discover?
Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor.
Why did most scientists at the time rejected Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift?
The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.
What evidence of climate change on continents supports the theory of continental drift?
Wegener used evidence from climate change to further support his theory. For example, an island in the Arctic Ocean contains fossils of tropical plants. According to Wegener, the island once must have been located close to the equator. Wegener also pointed to scratches on rocks made by glaciers.
How the continents fit together?
Earth > Power of Plate Tectonics > Pangaea
This gigantic continent, called Pangaea , slowly broke apart and spread out to form the continents we know today. All Earth’s continents were once combined in one supercontinent, Pangaea. Over millions of years, the continents drifted apart.
Why did Alfred Wegener think the continents moved?
Wegener suggested that perhaps the rotation of the Earth caused the continents to shift towards and apart from each other. (It doesn’t.) Today, we know that the continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics.
Are they situated along the edges of the continents?
The underwater edges of continents are called continental margins, and they are enormous. All together, they have a length of some 217,500 miles (350,000 kilometers). About 15 percent of the area of the world’s oceans lies over the submerged margins of continents.
When matching up once joined continents such as South America and Africa?
Evidence suggested that Pangaea began to break up about 200 million years ago. By 160 million years ago, continents had begun to drift to their present locations. Today’s coastlines of South America and Africa are a match because these two continents were once joined together.
What continents are connected?
Several continents are defined not as absolutely distinct bodies but as “more or less discrete masses of land”. Asia and Africa are joined by the Isthmus of Suez, and North and South America by the Isthmus of Panama.
What other evidence supports that North and South America Europe and Africa once were connected?
In the early part of the 20th century, scientists began to put together evidence that the continents could move around on Earth’s surface. The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.
What did Harry Hammond Hess realize in 1950?
Hess discovered that the oceans were shallower in the middle and identified the presence of Mid Ocean Ridges, raised above the surrounding generally flat sea floor (abyssal plain) by as much as 1.5 km.
Who discovered the great global rift?
In 1953, American physicists Maurice Ewing (1906-1974) and Bruce Heezen (1924-1977) discovered that through this underwater mountain range ran a deep canyon. In some places the canyon, called the Great Global Rift, came very close to land.
Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea flooring?
New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth’s surface. But the Earth isn’t getting any bigger. What happens, then, to keep the Earth the same size? The answer is subduction.
Who helped prove Alfred Wegener’s theory?
Alfred Wegener produced evidence in 1912 that the continents are in motion, but because he could not explain what forces could move them, geologists rejected his ideas. Almost 50 years later Harry Hess confirmed Wegener’s ideas by using the evidence of seafloor spreading to explain what moved continents.
How far do continents move every year?
The North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, for example, are separated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) per year.
What do Earth’s plates move on top of?
The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other.
Which is the best evidence that two continents were once connected is that they have matching?
Fossil Evidence
Fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of a similar age have been found on the shores of different continents, suggesting that the continents were once joined. For example, fossils of Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile, have been found both in Brazil and western Africa.
Who came up with the idea that all the continents were once joined together?
Pangea’s existence was first proposed in 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener as a part of his theory of continental drift. Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”
Who came up with the idea that the continents were once joined together?
Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once united into a single supercontinent named Pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient Greek. He suggested that Pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to their current positions. He called his hypothesis continental drift.
Why was continental drift so controversial during Alfred Wegener’s time what explanation was necessary to support his hypothesis?
What explanation was necessary to support his hypothesis? Continental drift is not easily observable because tectonic plates move very slowly. When Wegener proposed the continental drift hypothesis, he was unable to identify a force that could move continents.
What does Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis state about the continents?
Alfred Wegener first presented his hypothesis to the German Geological Society on 6 January 1912. His hypothesis was that the continents had once formed a single landmass, called Pangaea, before breaking apart and drifting to their present locations.
Why do continents move?
The movement of these tectonic plates is likely caused by convection currents in the molten rock in Earth’s mantle below the crust. Earthquakes and volcanoes are the short-term results of this tectonic movement. The long-term result of plate tectonics is the movement of entire continents over millions of years (Fig.
Do the continents fit together exactly?
Geological “fit” evidence is the matching of large-scale geological features on different continents. The coastlines of South America and West Africa seem to match up. Scientists have found that rocks on the east coast of South America are the same as rocks found on the west coast of Africa.
Do all continents fit like a puzzle?
About 200 million years ago, all the continents were connected together as one giant supercontinent known as Pangaea. Over time, these continents have broken apart into 7 continents and 5 oceans. We know they were together because it’s not only that continents fit together like a puzzle.
Which three continents contain coalfields that provide evidence for continental drift?
. The answer is Eurasia, North America, Africa, and South America. Most of the coal fields in the world are located in these countries along with good quality coal fields are found in Africa and South America.
What are 5 pieces of evidence that support continental drift?
The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones’ locations.
When did the continents get their current shape?
In 1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener proposed that Earth’s continents once formed a single, giant landmass, called Pangaea. Over millions of years, Pangaea slowly broke apart, eventually forming the continents as they are today. The video below shows how this happened over one billion years.
Why do South America and Africa fit together?
The Atlantic coasts of Africa and South America appear to fit together neatly, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The same shape is also traced out by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, shown on this map by the light-colored area (representing relatively shallow seas) between the two continents.
Why do Earth’s continents fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle?
The theory of continental drift simply stated that continents drifted from one location to another over time. Wegener noticed that the coasts of South America and Africa seemed to fit together like a puzzle.
How did the continents split?
Over time, these islands collided with the large group of continents and were attached to it in a process called accretion. About 525 million years ago, that land mass broke apart, with North America on one side and South America, Africa and the small island pieces on the other.
Is Alfred Wegener’s theory true?
Wegener published his theory in full in 1915, but his contemporaries mostly found it implausible. By 1930 it had been rejected by most geologists, and it sank into obscurity for the next few decades.
What landforms are the highest on the continents?
The highest landform on Earth is a mountain: Mount Everest in Nepal. It measures 8,850 meters (29,035 feet) above sea level. It is part of the Himalaya range that runs across several countries in Asia.
Do you believe in Wegener’s theory?
The theory was proposed by geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912, but was rejected by mainstream science at the time. Scientists confirmed some of Wegener’s ideas decades later, which are now part of the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics.
Are there 5 or 7 continents in the world?
A continent is a large continuous mass of land conventionally regarded as a collective region. There are seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia (listed from largest to smallest in size).
What continent is Russia in?
Why are Europe and Asia separate continents?
But linguistically and ethnically, the areas of Asia and Europe are distinct. Because of this, most geographers divide Eurasia into Europe and Asia. An imaginary line, running from the northern Ural Mountains in Russia south to the Caspian and Black Seas, separates Europe, to the west, from Asia, to the east.
Which 3 continents are connected together?
Three continents meet on the Mediterranean basin: Africa, Asia and Europe. Socio-economic and political conditions make this one of the most tense areas around the globe.
Are all continents connected underwater?
The continents do not float on a sea of molten rock. The continental and oceanic crusts sit on a thick layer of solid rock known as the mantle.
Are continents connected by land?
Continents are the biggest building blocks people use to describe the shape of the world. A continent is defined as a large unbroken landmass completely surrounded by water, although in some cases continents are (or were in part) connected by land bridges.
When did the continents split?
Pangaea existed about 240 million years ago. By about 200 million years ago, this supercontinent began breaking up. Over millions of years, Pangaea separated into pieces that moved away from one another. These pieces slowly assumed their positions as the continent we recognize today.
What evidence have scientists uncovered to show that Earth’s continents were once joined?
By examining evidence such as similar rock layers in various places, fossilized desert belts, the distribution of fossils, and the physical shapes of continents, scientists have concluded that the Earth’s continents were once all connected to form a “supercontinent” called Pangaea that was surrounded by an enormous …
What was probably the first evidence that led people to think that the continents were once connected?
Wegener’s first piece of evidence was that the coastlines of some continents fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. People noticed the similarities in the coastlines of South America and Africa on the first world maps, and some suggested the continents had been ripped apart [3].
Why was Alfred Wegener’s theory accepted?
The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.
What did Harry Hess discover?
Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor.
Who mapped the ocean floor in 1952?
Tharp and Heezen began mapping the individual ocean floors in 1952, but found obstacles in their way. The big one was invisibility: when it comes to mapping the ocean floor, the sea gets in the way of seeing. The second obstacle was limited data.
What is Harry Hess’s theory?
Hess envisaged that oceans grew from their centres, with molten material (basalt) oozing up from the Earth’s mantle along the mid ocean ridges. This created new seafloor which then spread away from the ridge in both directions.
What was Harry Hess contribution to plate tectonics?
It was Hess who determined how oceanic mountain ranges, called mid-ocean ridges, are fundamental to the tectonic movement that results in the drift of continents.
Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?
Why was Wegener’s theory forgotten? He could not explain how the continents could move. Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea floor spreading? because of subduction the Pacific Ocean.
Which continent moves the fastest?
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia, which rides on the world’s fastest-moving continental tectonic plate, is heading north so quickly that map co-ordinates are now out by as much as 1.5 meters (4.9 feet), say geoscientists.