![]() The fossils of Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile rather like a small crocodile, found both in Brazil and South Africa, are one example another is the discovery of fossils of the land reptile Lystrosaurus in rocks of the same age at locations in Africa, India, and Antarctica. Similar plant and animal fossils are found around the shores of different continents, suggesting that they were once joined. This article deals mainly with the historical development of the continental drift hypothesis before 1950.Įvidence for the movement of continents on tectonic plates is now extensive. The hypothesis of continental drift became part of the larger theory of plate tectonics. Tuzo Wilson led to acceptance among North American geologists. The idea of continental drift did not become widely accepted as theory until the 1950s in Europe.īy the 1960s, geological research conducted by Robert Dietz, Bruce Heezen, and Harry Hess along with a rekindling of the theory including a mechanism by J. The theory received support through the controversial years from South African geologist Alexander Du Toit as well as from Arthur Holmes. The concept was initially ridiculed by most geologists, who felt that an explanation of how a continent drifted was a prerequisite and that the lack of one made the idea of drifting continents wholly unreasonable. The similarity of southern continent fossil faunas and some geological formations had led a relatively small number of Southern hemisphere geologists to conjecture as early as 1900 that all the continents had once been joined into a supercontinent known as Pangaea. However, it was not until the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s, that a sufficient geological explanation of that movement was found. Francis Bacon, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, Benjamin Franklin, and others had noted much the same thing earlier. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 when he noticed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to fit together (for example, Africa and South America). Occur in India, Madagascar and Africa led some to consider a contiguous landmass ‘Lemuria’ linking these three landmasses.Īll this provided evidences of this theory.Continental Drift Hypothesis - Tectonophysics - Great Rift Valley -CrystalinksĬontinental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. When identical species of plants and animals adapted to living on land or in fresh water are found on either side of the marine barriers, a problem arises regarding accounting for such distribution. The gold bearing veins are in Brazil and it is obvious that the gold deposits of the Ghana are derived from the Brazil plateau when the two continents lay side by side. The occurrence of rich placer deposits of gold in the Ghana coast and the absolute absence of source rock in the region is an amazing fact. Overall resemblance of the Gondawana-type sediments clearly demonstrates that these landmasses Succession are found in Africa, Falkland Island, Madagascar, Antarctica and Australia. At the base, the system has thick tillite indicating extensive and The Gondawana system of sediments from India is known to have its counterparts in six different landmasses of the Southern Hemisphere. The earliest marine deposits along the coastline of South America and Africa are of the Jurassic age.ĭeposits of glaciers. The belt of ancient rocks of 2,000 million years from Brazil coast matches Rocks of Same Age Across the Oceans were found. The shorelines of Africa and South America facing each other have a remarkable and unmistakable match. Gondwanaland continued to break into various smaller continents that exist today.Ī variety of evidence was offered in support of the continental drift are mentioned below: Pangaea first broke into two large continental masses as Laurasia and Gondwanaland forming the He argued that, around 200 million years ago, the super continent, Pangaea, began to split. The mega-ocean was called PANTHALASSA, meaning all water. The super continent was named PANGAEA, which meant all earth. This was regarding the distribution of the oceans and the continents.įormed a single continental mass and mega ocean surrounded the same. Meteorologist who put forth a comprehensive argument in the form of “the continental drift theory” in 1912. History of science, it was Abraham Ortelius, a Dutch map maker, who first proposed such a possibility as early as 1596. No wonder, many scientists thought of this similarity and considered the possibility of the two Americas, Europe and Africa, to be once joined together. Of the coastlines on either side of the ocean. Observing the shape of the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean.
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