Continental Drift Theory

•Continental drift- the gradual movement of the continents across the Earth’s surface over geologic time
•In 1912, Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, proposed a theory that about 200 million years ago, the
continents were once on large mass. He called this landmass Pangaea
• This Pangaea started to break into 2 smaller supercontinent called Laurasia and Gondwanaland during the
Jurassic period. These supercontinents broke into the continents and these continents separated and drifted apart
since then
• Wegener searched for evidences to support his claim. He noticed the fit of the edges of the continents on the
opposite sides of the South Atlantic
• His evidences includes the distribution of fossils in different continents, rock features and ancient climates

Evidence: The continental Jigsaw Puzzle

Did it really start as one big landmass? It seems very impossible that the 7 continents, which are currently
thousands of miles away from each other were actually connected pieces of a supercontinent.
The most visible and fascinating evidence that these continents were once one is their shapes. The edge
of one continent surprisingly matches the edge of another: South America and Africa fit together, India,
Antarctica, and Australia match one another; Eurasia and North America complete the hole continental puzzle
in the North

Evidence from fossils

Fossils are preserved remains or traces of organisms (plants or animals) from the remote past. Fossilized
leaves of an extinct plant Glossopteris were found in 250 million years old rocks. These fossils were located in
the continents of Southern Africa, Australia, India, and Antarctica, which are now separated from each other by
wide oceans. The large seeds of this plant could not possible travel a long journey by the wind or survive a
rough side through ocean waves
Mesosaurus and Lystosaurus are fresh water reptiles. Fossils of these animals were discovered in different
continents, such as in South America and Africa. It is impossible for these reptiles to sim over the vast oceans
and move from one continent to another. Fossils ere also found in Antarctica

Evidence from rocks

Fossils found in rocks support the continental Drift Theory. The rocks themselves also provide evidence
that continents drifted apart from each other. Africa fits South America. Rock formations in Africa line up with
that in South America as if it was a long mountain range.
The folded cape mountains of South America and Africa line up perfectly as if they were once a long
mountain range

Coal Deposits
Coal bed ere formed from the compaction and decomposition of swamp plants that lived million years
ago. These were discovered n South America, Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and even in
Antarctica
The current location of Antarctica could not sustain substantial amount of life. If there is a substantial
quantity of coal in it, thus, it only means that Antarctica must have been positioned in a art of the Earth where it
once supported large quantities of life. This leads to the idea that Antarctica once experienced a tropical climate,
thus, it might have been closer before to the equator

Paleoclimates
Wegener assembled geologic evidence that showed that rocks formed 200 million years ago in India,
Australia, South America, and southern Africa all exhibited evidence of continental glaciation (Fig. 6). Such a
glaciation would have required a global ice age if the continents were in their present positions. However, at the
same time there were tropical swamps in southern Ohio and much of the eastern U.S. Clearly, the rest of the
world was not in a deep freeze. Such apparently widespread glaciation could be explained if the continents were
located close to the South Pole.

The Seafloor Spreading

 During the 1950s and 1960s, now techniques and modern gadgets enabled scientists to make better
observations and gather new information about the ocean floor. With the use of sonars and submersibles,
scientists had a clearer view of the ocean floors. They have discovered underwater features deep within the
ocean
Scientists found a system of ridges or mountains in the seafloor similar to those found in the continents.
These are called mid-ocean ridges. One of these is the famous Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an undersea mountain chain
in the Atlantic Ocean. It has a gigantic cleft about 32-48 km long and 1.6 km deep. The ridge is off set by
fracture zones or rift valleys.
In the early 1960’s, scientist Harry Hess, together with Robert Dietz, suggested an explanation to the
Continental drift. This is the Seafloor Spreading theory. According to this theory, hot, less dense material from
below the earth’s crust rises towards the surface at the mid-ocean ridge. This material flows sideways carrying
the seafloor away from the ridge and creates a crack in the crust. The magma flows out of the crack, cools down
an becomes the new seafloor
Overtime, the new oceanic crust pushed the old oceanic crust far from the ridge. The process of seafloor
spreading allowed the creation of new bodies of water. for example, the Red Sea was created as the African
plate and the Arabian plate moved away from each other. Seafloor spreading is also pulling the continents of
Australia, South America, and Antarctica away from each other in the East Pacific rise. The east Pacific rise is
one of the most active sites of seafloor spreading with more than 14 centimeters every year
In the place where two oceanic plates collide or where an oceanic plate and a continental plate collide, a
subduction zone occurs. As the new seafloor is formed at the mid-ocean ridge, the old seafloor farthest from the
ridge is destroyed at the subduction zone.
The rate of formation of a new seafloor is not always as fast as the destruction of the old seafloor at the
subduction zone. This explains why the Pacific Ocean is getting smaller and why the Atlantic Ocean is getting
wider. If subduction is faster than sea floor spreading, the ocean shrinks. When the seafloor spreading is greater
than the subduction, then the ocean gets wider.
Findings that support seafloor Spreading theory:
1. Rocks are younger at the mid-ocean ridge
2. Rocks far from the mid-ocean ridge are older.
3. Sediments are thinner at the ridge
4. Rocks at the ocean floor are younger than those at the continents.

Seafloor Bathymetry

Sounding Line – weighted rope lowered overboard until it touched the ocean bottom; this old method is
time-consuming and inaccurate
Echo Sounding – type of sonar which measures depth by emitting a burst high frequency sound and
listening for the echo from the seafloor. Sound is emitted from a source on the ship and the returning
echo is detected by a receiver on the ship. Deeper water means longer time for the echo to return to the
receiver.
Satellite altimetry – profiles the shape of the sea surface by measuring the travel time of a radar pulse from
the satellite to the ocean surface and back to the satellite receiver. The shape of the sea surface approximates
the shape of the sea floor.

Features of the ocean floor.

Continental Margin – submerged outer edge of the continent where continental crust transactions into
oceanic crust.
Passive or Atlantic Type – features awide, gently sloping continental shelf (50-200m depth), a steeper
continental slope (3000-4000m depth)and a flatter continental rise.
Active or Pacific Type – characterized by a narrow shelf and slope that descends into a trench or trough.
 Abyssal plains and abyssal hills – Abyssal plain is an extremely flat, sediment-covered stretches of the
ocean flolor interrupted by occasional volcanoes, mostly extinct called seamounts. Abyssal hills are
elongate hills, typically 50-300m high and common on the slopes of mid-oceanic ridge. These hills have
their origins as faulted and tilted blocks of oceanic crust.

The seafloor spreading theory contradicts a part of the continental Drift. According to this theory,
continents moved through unmoving oceans and that larger, sturdier continents broke through the oceanic
crust. Whereas, the seafloor spreading shows that the ocean is the actual site of tectonic act.

• The Earth is composed of 3 major layers: the crust, mantle and core which is subdivided into outer and inner
core
• Crust - thin rigid outer layer of the Earth’s surface
• Mantle –thick layer of semi-solid hot, dense rock. It makes most of the Earth’s volume and mass
• The cold and rigid outermost rock layer of the earth is called the lithosphere. The crust and a part of the upper
mantle make up the lithosphere. The lithosphere is subdivided into portions called lithospheric plates
• The lithosphere is thin below mid-ocean ridges and thick below continents
• Two types of crust is the oceanic and continental crust
• The layer of Earth below the lithosphere, called the asthenosphere, is hot that it behaves like a plastic material
and enables Earth’s plates to move.
• The outer core is made up of molten material and accounts for the Earth’s magnetic field
• The inner core is the deepest layer of the Earth. It is made up of solid nickel and iron. The temperature in the
inner core reaches as high as 5000degree C.
PLATE TECTONICS
• Plates- are the broken segments of lithosphere
- Plate link like a puzzle
• Tectonics- movement of plates or lithosphere
- slowly moving
• Earth’s tectonic plates are large pieces of the lithosphere that fit together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw
puzzle.

• The theory of plate tectonics, proposed in the late 1960s, states that Earth’s surface is made of rigid slabs of
rock, or plates, that move with respect to each other. It Helps explain the formation and destruction of the Earth’s
crust and its movement over time
• Geologists use the word tectonic to describe the forces that shape Earth’s surface and the rock structures that
form as a result

Plate Boundaries
A plate boundary is the place where two plates meet
The three types of plate boundaries are

Divergent- Plates moving away from each other

Oceanic-oceanic- forms elevated ridge with rift valley at the center; submarine volcanism and shallow
earthquakes. Example: Mid-Atlantic ridge; East Pacific rise
Continental-continental- Broad elevated region with major rift valley; abundant volcanism and shallow
earthquakes. Example: East-African Rift Valley; Red sea
Convergent- plates moving toward each other
Oceanic-continental- Dense oceanic plate slips beneath less dense continental plate; trench forms on the
subducting plate side and extensive volcanism on the overriding continental plate; earthquake foci becoming
deeper in the direction of subduction. Example: Western South America
Oceanic-oceanic- Older, cooler, denser plate slips beneath less dense plate; trench forms on subducting
plate side and island arc on overriding plate; band of earthquakes becoming deeper in the direction of
subduction Examples: Aleutians; Marianas
Continental-continental- Neither mass is subducted; plate edges are compressed, folded, and uplifted
resulting in the formation of major mountain range. Example: Himalayas; Alps

Transform- Plate sliding past each other

Lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed; most offset oceanic ridge systems while some cut through
continental crust; characterized by shallow earthquakes. Example: mid-ocean ridge; San Andres Fault

What facilitates the movement of the plates?

Heat is produced in the core that produces convection in the mantle. This convection causes the plate to move
around.

Convection current
As a substance like water is heated, the less dense particles cool down, they sink, and the other less dense
particles rise. This continuous process is called convection current. This is exactly what happens in the Earth’s
mantle. The hot, less dense rising material spreads out as it reaches the upper mantle causing upward and
sideward forces. These forces lift and split the lithosphere at divergent plate boundaries. The hot magma flows
out of the mantle and cools down to form the ne ocean crust. The downward movement of the convection current
occurs along a convergent boundary where the sinking force pulls the tectonic plate downward.
The convection current rotate very slowly, as they move and drag the plates along. Because of convection
current, the tectonic plates are able to move slowly along the tectonic boundaries, pushing each other, sliding
past each other and drifting away from each other.
As an oceanic crust moves away from a divergent boundary, it becomes denser than the newer oceanic crust. As
the older seafloor sinks, the weight of the uplifted ridge pushes the oceanic crust toward the trench at the
subduction zone. This process is called ridge push
Slab pull is the other possible process involved in the tectonic plate movement. The eight of the subducting
plate pulls the trailing slab into the subduction zone.
This is what happens inside the Earth and its effects on the Earth’s surface
Tectonic activities at the surface like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are inevitable
Earth as dynamic planet and still the most fascinating planet for it offers us a home that no other planet can.

How are earthquakes and volcanoes related to the theory of plate tectonics?
• Volcanoes from where plates separate along a mid-ocean ridge or continental rift or collide along a subduction
zone.
• Mountains can form where two continents collide.
Ocean Basin Formation
Ocean basins are the areas of the Earth's surface that extends seaward from the continental margins. They
occupy more than 76% of the total ocean area. These are formed from a series of geologic processes, starting
with a separation of two diverging plates where molten rock materials well up from the underlying mantle into
the ridge or gap between the plates, solidifying into an ocean crust. At that time, two plates may converge at a
deep-sea trench in another part of the world.
As an ocean ridge forms, an older part of the ocean floor is destroyed.
For each segment of new ocean floor created at the ridges, an old segment of the ocean floor is destroyed at
the trenches. This has been proven in the submarine explorations where the oldest segment of ocean floor was
found in the far western Pacific.
With the formation of ocean basins, Hess and Dietz concluded that the Atlantic and Arctic basins are
expanding with the spreading of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Meanwhile, the Pacific basin is shrinking with the
movement of the East Pacific Rise. It is a ceaseless process that recycles ocean basins.
____1. What evidence did Wegener have for his theory of continental drift?
A. He had no evidence.
B. He knew that plant and animal fossils, as well as rock layers, matched on the two continents of Africa and
South America.
C. He explained how continents moved apart.
____2. Why was Wegener’s theory forgotten?
A. He could not explain how the continents could move. C. He did not publish his theory.
B. It was not a good theory. D. He did not have money.
____3. Tectonics plates float on the _____________________
A. outer core B. Inner core C. asthenosphere or mantle D. lithosphere
____4. The ________ in the asthenosphere is described as a “giant conveyor belt”.
A. magma B. convection C. spinning D. lithosphere
____5. The oldest crust (rocks) are found _________ the mid-ocean ridge.
A. farthest B. nearest C. along D. away
____6. The youngest crust( rocks) are found _________ the mid-ocean ridge.
A. farthest B. nearest C. along D. away
____7. What evidences do scientists use to support the continental drift theory?
A. rocks, fossils, air
B. rocks, fossils, climate
C. rocks, water, ice
D. rocks, fossils, human beings
____8. Who came up with the theory of sea floor spreading?
A. Alfred Wegener B. Harry Hess
C. ancient Greeks D. Albert Einstein
____9. Where does sea floor spreading happen?
A. at the rift valley along the mid-ocean ridges C. at the Ring of Fire
B. at deep sea trenches D. at the Pacific Ocean
____10. What material forms new ocean floor?
A. sediment B. magma C. plates D. rocks
____11. This process of old crust being pulled down and remelted is called:
A. sea floor spreading B. drifting C. plate tectonics D. subduction
____12. The evidence that rocks closer to mid ocean ridges are younger than rocks farther away
supports the theory of:
A. sea floor spreading B. subduction C. plate tectonics D. Big Bang theory
____13. The theory of plate tectonics combine which two other theories?
A. sea floor spreading and continental drift C. continental drift and fossil theory
B. sea floor spreading and tidal theory D. continental drift and Big Bang theory
____14. Large pieces of the lithosphere that float on the asthenosphere are called:
A. asthenosphere B. the mid-ocean ridge C. deep-sea trenches D. tectonic plates
____15. The partly-melted lower mantle is called:
A. magma B. the lithosphere C. the core D. the asthenosphere
____16. A boundary where plates move away from each other is called:
A. divergent B. convergent C. transform D. shear boundary
____17. A deep crack in the earth’s surface is called
A. ridge B. fault C. plate D. mountain

____18. How do the plates move at a transform boundary?

A. They move toward each other. C. They move past each other.
B. They move away from each other. D. they do not move.
____19. What kind of plate boundary results to the formation of an Island arc?
A. divergent boundary B. transform or shear boundary C. convergent boundary
____20. What kind of plate boundary results to the formation of most volcanoes?
A. convergent boundary B. divergent boundary C. transform or shear boundary
____21. What kind of plate boundary causes old and heavy crust ( rocks ) to sink into the mantle ( subduction)?
A. convergent boundary B. divergent boundary C. transform or shear boundary
____22. What kind of plate boundary results to the formation of a mountain range like the Himalayas
and the Appalachian mountains?
A. divergent boundary B. transform or shear boundary C. convergent boundary
____23. What kind of plate boundary results to the formation of a trench like the Marianas trench?
A. convergent boundary B. divergent boundary C. transform or shear boundary
____24. What kind of plate boundary results to the formation of a fault line like the San Andreas fault in
California?
A. divergent boundary B. transform or shear boundary C. convergent boundary
____25. What kind of plate boundary causes sea floor spreading like the one causing the Atlantic
Ocean to widen?
A. convergent boundary B. divergent boundary C. transform or shear boundary