How Did Opponents Of Continental Drift Account?

Opponents of continental drift insisted trans-oceanic land bridges allowed animals and plants to move between continents [6]. The land bridges eventually eroded away, leaving the continents permanently separated.

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Who opposed continental drift?

In a 1964 Royal Society symposium devoted to continental drift, some prestigious scientists such as Gordon MacDonald, J. Lamar Worzel and sir Harold Jeffreys, still opposed to the theory and defied the new evidence (Frankel 2012, 148–232).

Why did most scientist reject Wegener’s theory?

Wegener’s inability to provide an adequate explanation of the forces responsible for continental drift and the prevailing belief that the earth was solid and immovable resulted in the scientific dismissal of his theories.

What mechanism accounts for continental drift?

The processes of seafloor spreading, rift valley formation, and subduction (where heavier tectonic plates sink beneath lighter ones) were not well-established until the 1960s. These processes were the main geologic forces behind what Wegener recognized as continental drift.

What aspect of the continental drift theory is opposed by the seafloor spreading theory?

Similar to Wegener’s theory that continents do in fact move, Hess’ seafloor spreading contradicted Wegener’s continental drift in that it involved the ocean sea floor moving as it expanded—instead of continents ploughing through the sea.

What was the main problem with continental drift?

Although now accepted, the theory of continental drift was rejected for many years, with evidence in its favor considered insufficient. One problem was that a plausible driving force was missing. A second problem was that Wegener’s estimate of the speed of continental motion, 250 cm/year, was implausibly high.

How did other scientists explain why the continents seemed to fit together?

Wegener suggested that perhaps the rotation of the Earth caused the continents to shift towards and apart from each other. … Today, we know that the continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics.

What arguments were used against Wegener’s continental drift theory?

There were two main arguments against his thesis: one centered on the fact that no one could think of a mechanism that could move the continents, while the other concerned the question of whether the data supported Wegener. Wegener advanced five pieces of evidence that supported his thesis of continental motion.

Why did scientists not accept the continental drift hypothesis quizlet?

Why did scientists not accept the Continental Drift hypothesis? It was based on observations from the southern hemisphere which was unfamiliar to most geologists.

Why was continental drift so controversial during Alfred Wegener’s time what explanation was necessary to support his hypothesis?

What explanation was necessary to support his hypothesis? Continental drift is not easily observable because tectonic plates move very slowly. When Wegener proposed the continental drift hypothesis, he was unable to identify a force that could move continents.

What did other scientists think of Alfred Wegener’s theory?

Other scientists did not believe Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift because they did not see any way that continents could move through the oceanic crust and the mantle, nor did they see evidence that this had happened. They weren’t aware of anything that could cause continents to move.

When did Pangea break up?

Many people have heard of Pangaea, the supercontinent that included all continents on Earth and began to break up about 175 million years ago.

What kind of stress causes the continental drift?

Shear stress is the most common stress at transform plate boundaries.

Why was Pangea not accepted?

Despite having this geological and paleontological evidence, Wegener’s theory of continental drift was not accepted by the scientific community, because his explanation of the driving forces behind continental movement (which he said stemmed from the pulling force that created Earth’s equatorial bulge or the …

How the continents fit together?

Earth > Power of Plate Tectonics > Pangaea

This gigantic continent, called Pangaea , slowly broke apart and spread out to form the continents we know today. All Earth’s continents were once combined in one supercontinent, Pangaea. Over millions of years, the continents drifted apart.

Why did the idea of continental drift become more accepted after seafloor spreading was proposed?

Why was the idea of moving continents more widely accepted after seafloor spreading was proposed? While Wegener collected a lot of data to support the idea that the continents were drifting across the Earth’s surface, he could not explain what caused the landmasses to move or how they moved.

Who were the two scientists who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading?

The idea that the seafloor itself moves and also carries the continents with it as it spreads from a central rift axis was proposed by Harold Hammond Hess from Princeton University and Robert Dietz of the U.S. Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego in the 1960s. The phenomenon is known today as plate tectonics.

What evidence do scientists use to support the continental drift theory?

The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones’ locations.

When did Wegener presented drift theory?

Wegener first presented his theory in lectures in 1912 and published it in full in 1915 in his most important work, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans).

Did all continents fit together?

In his book he said that around 300 million years ago the continents had all been joined into a single landmass he called Pangaea, meaning “all earth” in ancient Greek. The supercontinent later broke apart and the continents having been moving into their current positions ever since.

Why do scientists think that lithosphere has to be destroyed somewhere on or in the earth?

Why do scientists think that lithosphere has to be destroyed somewhere on or in the earth? Lithosphere is created at divergent boundaries and the earth is not getting any larger.

What evidence indicated scientists that the continents were once connected?

Wegener’s first piece of evidence was that the coastlines of some continents fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. People noticed the similarities in the coastlines of South America and Africa on the first world maps, and some suggested the continents had been ripped apart [3].

What was the main objection to the continental drift hypothesis?

One of the main objections to the continental drift hypothesis was its inability to provide an acceptable mechanism for the movement of continents.

What was the main reason that the theory of continental drift was rejected by scientists when it was first published?

Geologists roundly denounced Wegener’s continental drift theory after he published the details in a 1915 book called “The Origin of Continents and Oceans.” Part of the opposition was because Wegener didn’t have a good model to explain how the continents moved, something scientists later explained under the umbrella of …

Who created continents?

In 1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener proposed a theory he called continental drift. According to Wegener’s theory, Earth’s continents once formed a single, giant landmass, which he called Pangaea. Over millions of years, Pangaea slowly broke apart, eventually forming the continents as they are today.

What did Harry Hess discover?

Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor.

How did Pangea split?

Pangea began to break up about 200 million years ago in the same way that it was formed: through tectonic plate movement caused by mantle convection. Just as Pangea was formed through the movement of new material away from rift zones, new material also caused the supercontinent to separate.

Was there life on Rodinia?

It existed before life colonized dry land. It was before the ozone layer formed, so Rodinia was too exposed to the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight for organisms to live there and leave fossils. However, its existence probably affected the marine life of its time.

Which stress happens when two continental plates collide with each other?

Instead, a collision between two continental plates crunches and folds the rock at the boundary, lifting it up and leading to the formation of mountains and mountain ranges.

What type of stress is tension?

Tensional stress is the stress that tends to pull something apart. It is the stress component perpendicular to a given surface, such as a fault plane, that results from forces applied perpendicular to the surface or from remote forces transmitted through the surrounding rock.

Will Pangea form again?

Pangea broke apart about 200 million years ago, its pieces drifting away on the tectonic plates — but not permanently. The continents will reunite again in the deep future.

What was the Earth called before Pangea?

Between roughly 750 million and 550 million years ago these ocean basins were destroyed, and all the Precambrian nuclei of Africa, Australia, Antarctica, South America and India amalgamated into the supercontinent of Gondwana.

What is tension in geography?

In geology, the term “tension” refers to a stress which stretches rocks in two opposite directions. The rocks become longer in a lateral direction and thinner in a vertical direction.

Who introduced continental theory?

The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other.

How did continents split?

Over time, these islands collided with the large group of continents and were attached to it in a process called accretion. About 525 million years ago, that land mass broke apart, with North America on one side and South America, Africa and the small island pieces on the other.

How did continental drift happen?

Continental drift over millions of years was caused by plate tectonics. And plate tectonics also explained how the movement of the plates create volcanoes and earthquakes, and how the collision between continents gave rise to huge mountain ranges.

How did the continental drift theory and the seafloor spreading theory contributed to the plate tectonics theory?

Tuzo Wilson, combined the continental drift and seafloor spreading hypotheses to propose the theory of plate tectonics. Tuzo said that Earth’s crust, or lithosphere, was divided into large, rigid pieces called plates. These plates “float” atop an underlying rock layer called the asthenosphere.

How does the continental drift theory and seafloor spreading support the plate tectonics theory?

Supporters of continental drift originally theorized that the continents moved (drifted) through unmoving oceans. Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity. Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. Subduction is another.

When did continental drift happen?

In 1912 a German meteorologist named Alfred Wegener introduced the first detailed and comprehensive theory of continental drift.

What was Alfred Wegener claim?

About 300 million years ago, claimed Wegener, the continents had formed a single mass, called Pangaea (from the Greek for “all the Earth”). Pangaea had rifted, or split, and its pieces had been moving away from each other ever since.

Who was the scientist responsible for plate tectonics?

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s land masses are in constant motion. The realization that Earth’s land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift. He is shown here at the base camp for Johan Koch’s 1912-1913 Greenland expedition.

How is plate tectonics supported by the apparent fit of the continental coastlines?

This apparent fit is due to the fact the continents were once connected, and have since moved apart in what has been called continental drift . However, we now know that it is not just the continents that move, so a more correct term is plate tectonics .

Who is the father of continental drift?

Alfred Wegener: The Father of Continental Drift.

Were all countries connected?

This giant landmass known as a supercontinent was called Pangea. The word Pangaea means “All Lands”, this describes the way all the continents were joined up together. Pangea existed 240 million years ago and about 200 millions years ago it began to break apart.

Who discovered Pangea?

In 1912 Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) noticed the same thing and proposed that the continents were once compressed into a single protocontinent which he called Pangaea (meaning “all lands”), and over time they have drifted apart into their current distribution.

Why did scientists not accept the continental drift hypothesis?

The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.

Why must the production and destruction of lithosphere be going on at approximately the same rate?

Lithosphere is being consumed at convergent boundaries where a slab of oceanic crust plunges into the asthenosphere. The production and destruction of the lithosphere must take place at about the same rate because Earth is neither growing nor shrinking in size.

Is lithosphere being created destroyed or neither at this boundary?

Lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed along transform boundaries which connect segments of spreading oceanic ridges and other plate boundaries.

What did other scientists think of Alfred Wegener’s theory?

Other scientists did not believe Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift because they did not see any way that continents could move through the oceanic crust and the mantle, nor did they see evidence that this had happened. They weren’t aware of anything that could cause continents to move.

What are the effects of continental drift?

Modern climates are a result of past movements of tectonic plates. A continents climates is also affected by the continents location in relation to oceans and other continents. Mountains ranges affect air flow and wind patterns around the globe.

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