Plate Tectonics

Question	Answer
Who came up with the continental drift theory?	Alfred Wegener
How did Wegener get evidence, to support his hypothesized theory of continental drift?	He noticed fossils, that were similar or the same, were found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He also saw that South America and Africa fitted together like a puzzle. After doing more resurch, he found there were matching layers in rocks, in separate continents, and he also found fossils in the 'wrong places'
At the time that Wegener was hypothesizing his theory, what was the common belief about land formation?	People thought there had once been land bridges linking the continents- so the animals had been able to cross. The bridges had sunk of been covered, though
Describe Wegeners theory of Continental drift	300 million years ago, there had just been one super continent, called Pangaea, which broke into smaller chunks that moved apart. He said the chunks (which were our modern day continents) were still drifting apart
Give two reasons why Wegeners theory wasn't fully accepted straight away	1) He said the movement was caused by tidal forces and the earth rotation, which Geologists said was impossible as the force needed would stop the earth from spinning 2) He got his calculations wrong of how fast the continents should be moving
Why were Scientists suddenly accepting of Wegeners theory, in the 1950's?	They were able to investigate the ocean floor and found new evidence to support the theory

Resource summary

	Created by Adam Collinge about 12 years ago