Continental Drift Flashcards
What is the hypothesis of continental drift?
Prove that continents had moved over time.
Who is credited for proposing continental drift?
Alfred Wegener
What evidence was first collected to support the hypothesis of continental drift?
Matching edges Matching rocks Matching Climates Matching mountains Matching fossils
What was the main weakness of the continental drift hypothesis?
Wegener couldn’t explain HOW continental drift worked.
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
Lithosphere is broken into 7-8 large plates which float on the partly molten asthenosphere.
Plates pull apart, slide, and collide at their boundaries, causing tectonics.
Who first proposed the theory of plate tectonics?
Harry Hess
What was the new mechanism to explain plate tectonics?
Seafloor spreading
Volcanic mountains were pushing the continents apart as they erupted.
Seafloor spreading
The same continents also shared similar plant and animal fossils from the same age rocks.
Glossopteris Fern