Guided Notes about Continental Drift

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Guided Notes about Continental Drift

• Chapter 17, Section 1

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1. Who were the first to consider the idea of
moving landmasses?

• Early mapmakers were the first to consider moving
  landmasses. They noticed how continents fit
  together.

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2. Construct a flow map or timeline

• 1. Abraham Orteliuslate 1500s
• - thought that North America and South
  America were separated from Europe and Africa by
  floods and earthquakes.

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2. Construct a flow map or timeline

• 2. Eduard Suesslate 1800s
• thought that the Southern continents
• were once joined together as a single
• landmass, which he called
• Gondwanaland

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2. Construct a flow map or timeline

• 3. Alfred Wegener1912
• -proposed the theory of continental
  drift,but it was rejected by the scientific
  community

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3. Describe Wegeners theory of continental
drift and Pangaea.

• Earths continents were once joined as a single
  landmass. Wegener called it Pangaea, which means
  all the Earth. It broke apart 200 million
  years ago, and since that time, the continents
  have been drifting to their current positions.

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Evidence for Continental Drift

• FIT OF THE COASTLINES
• the coasts of South America and Africa fit
  together like a puzzle in the Atlantic Ocean

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Evidence for Continental Drift

• SIMILAR ROCK FORMATIONS
• Rocks in areas that were once joined have the
  same age and structure, such as the Appalachian
  Mountains and mountains in Greenland and Europe.

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Evidence for Continental Drift

• FOSSILS
• Fossils of land animals and plants were found in
  widely separated continents. These fossils are
  all the same age, which suggests that all land
  was once joined.
• Glossopteris (an ancient fern-like plant)
• Mesosaurus (a small aquatic reptile)

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Evidence for Continental Drift

• CLIMATE EVIDENCE
• Layers of coal were found in polar regions
• Glacial deposits were found in tropical and
  temperate regions

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5. Why was Wegeners hypothesis rejected?

• 1. Wegener could not explain what was causing
  the continents to move.
• 2. Wegener could not explain how the continents
  were able to move through the solid rock of the
  ocean floor.