The

Continental Drift
Theory
 OBJECTIVES
• discuss lines of evidences that
support the Continental Drift Theory;
• trace the movement of the plates in
the Continental Drift Theory; and
• value the impact of the Continental
Drift Theory in geology.
 Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics
• Continental Drift is the gradual movement of
continents over time
• Earth’s outer layer, a 100-km thick shell of
rigid rock called lithosphere, is broken into
independent segments called plates which
floats on a fluid level of molten rocks called
asthenosphere.
• The movement of the asthenosphere is called
Plate Tectonics
Lithospheric plate boundaries
ALFRED WEGENER
 Alfred Wegener’s
Continental Drift Theory
• He proposed the first complete Continental
Drift Theory
• Realized that the jigsaw-like fit suggested that
the continents had once been joined together
and had later split and drifted apart.
• Pangaea (meaning “all lands”; northern part
Laurasia; southern part Gondwanaland) broke
apart at the end of the Triassic Period,
approximately 200 million years ago.
PANGAEA
LIKE PUZZLE PIECES
Wegener’s Evidence of Continental Drift

• Evidence from fossils

• FOSSILS - The remnant of any ancient
animal or plant that has been
preserved in crystallized rocks.
Cynognathus, a Triassic reptile lived in Brazil and
Africa.
Fossils of Mesosaurus were found in Argentina and
Africa but nowhere else in the world.
Remains of Lystrosaurus were found in Africa,
Antarctica and India
Fossil ferns, Glossopteris were found in all the
southern land masses.
FOSSIL CLUES
Wegener’s Evidence of Continental Drift

• Evidence from paleoclimatology

Sedimentary rocks reflect the latitudes at which
they formed.
Glaciers and glacial sediments in high latitudes
That created tills and tillites
Deserts on 30 degrees north or south
Coral reefs in near-equatorial tropical regions.
CLIMATE CLUES
TILLS and their lithified equivalents, TILLITES,
are sediments deposited by glacier ice.
 COAL SEAMS
a bed of coal usually thick enough to be profitably mined.

-To form the thick layer of plant debris required

to produce a coal seam, the rate of plant debris
accumulation must be greater than the rate of decay.
Once a thick layer of plant debris is formed, it must be
buried by sediments such as mud or sand.
These are typically washed into the swamp
by a flooding river.

-The most significant uses of coal are in electricity

generation, steel production, cement manufacturing and
as a liquid fuel.
Wegener’s Evidence of Continental Drift
• Geologic evidence - Rock layers and types
Plotted data on map
Uncommon rock type on one side of Atlantic
Ocean was identical to rocks on the other side.
ROCK LAYERS/TYPES
Present continental division
 Seafloor Spreading
• It is a geologic process in which tectonic plates
split apart from each other as a result of mantle
convection – the slow motion of Earth’s motion.

• Model for the origin of all oceanic crust.

• Mid-Atlantic ridge – long submarine mountain

range in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

• Part of a continuous submarine mountain chain

(mid-oceanic ridge).