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Water
continental drift
magma motion
plate tectonics
Correct!
At the time, people thought Wegener's theory was ridiculous. Today, scientists know continents move because of plate tectonics, the motion of the giant plates that make up the Earth's crust.
Definition: a supercontinent made of all of the Earth's landmasses
When it existed: about 200 million years ago
Proposed by: Alfred Wegner in 1915
Cool fact: Scientists have found tropical plant fossils in polar regions and signs of glaciers in arid regions of Africa. These different climate zones are evidence that the continents are moving.
In 1915, German scientist Alfred Wegener suggested Pangaea broke apart to form the continents we see today. He called his theory:
The shape of the continents was not the only evidence to support the idea of a supercontinent. Scientists had also discovered:
matching fossils of plants and animals in South America and Africa
identical bands of rock deposits in North America and Europe
both
Correct!
These rocks and fossils are evidence to prove that the continents were once connected.
"Pangaea" means:
"across the earth"
"all earth"
"big panhandle"
Correct!
Pangaea means "all earth." Alfred Wegner first used this name when he proposed his theory of continental drift in his 1915 book, On the Origin of Continents and Oceans.
Pangaea was probably not the first supercontinent to form in the history of the Earth.
Fact
OR
Fiction
?
Fact
Scientists believe the continents have come together and spread apart at least three times before. That's not hard to imagine since the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
“
If the continents today were joined like Pangaea, all the people on the Earth would be living on one big, continuous continent. What do you think it would be like?
„
Rondi Davies, Earth scientist