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- Continental drift describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time. This map displays an early "supercontinent," Gondwana, which eventually moved to form the continents we know today. Fossils of similar organisms across widely disparate continents encouraged the revolutionary theory of continental drift.
www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/continental-drift/
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Oct 19, 2023 · Learn about the theory of continental drift, which proposed that continents were once part of a single landmass called Pangaea and later broke up and moved across the Earth. Find out how this theory was developed by Alfred Wegener and how it was replaced by plate tectonics.
Continental drift is the hypothesis, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The hypothesis of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics , which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of ...
Jun 14, 2024 · Learn about the concept of continental drift, which proposes that continents have moved horizontally over geologic time. Explore the evidence from fossils, rocks, and geomagnetism that supports this theory and its evolution from Wegener to plate tectonics.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 24, 2019 · Learn about Alfred Wegener's revolutionary theory that the continents had once been part of a supercontinent that broke apart and drifted to their current locations. Explore the fossil, geologic, and paleontologic evidence that supported his theory and the challenges he faced from the scientific community.
Dec 14, 2021 · Continental drift was a revolutionary theory explaining that continents shift position on Earth's surface. The theory was proposed by geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred...
Apr 24, 2024 · Opponents of continental drift insisted trans-oceanic land bridges allowed animals and plants to move between continents. The land bridges eventually eroded, leaving the continents permanently separated.
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.
