What discovery provided strong support for Continental Drift theory Discover the facts behind the theory of continental drift. easily by the scientific establishment. At each location, the tillites were subsequently covered by desert sands of the subtropics and these in turn by coal measures, indicating that the region had arrived near the paleoequator. Blocks of thick continental crust fit together nicely along the edges of their shelves to form the supercontinent called Pangea. According to the theory, Earth has a rigid outer layer, known as the lithosphere, which is typically about 100 km (60 miles) thick and overlies a plastic (moldable, partially molten) layer called the asthenosphere. And for geologists he was an outsider who dared to question the foundations of their science, so most of them rejected his ideas with the backing of figures like Einstein, who wrote the prologue to a book that ridiculed Wegener. A bouncy ride, Well check the front and rear suspension, Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very close to the equator. (Gondwanaland). if volcanoes are formed near tectonic plates what would happen if they move would they get bigger or smaller or no longer be a volcano. however, scientists made more observations, assembling the modern theory of plate tectonics. Modified from Parks and Plates: The Geology of our National Parks, Monuments and Seashores, by Robert J. Lillie, New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 298 pp., 2005, www.amazon.com/dp/0134905172. The central idea is that in debating the continental-drift theory the geologists were manifesting two styles of thought in confrontation, mobilism and fixism (Pellegrini, 2019). The ancient Greeks realized that some rocks are strongly magnetized, and the Chinese invented the magnetic compass in the 13th century. How does the fossil record corroborate phylogenetic history? which broke apart some 200 million years ago and which he called Pangaea. First, the topography of the ocean floor was mapped in great detail during and after World War II. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Wegener tentatively suggested two candidates: He also disputed the theorythat mountains formed like wrinkles on the skin of a drying apple, claiming instead that mountains formed when the edges of drifting continents crumpled and folded. Well get to the root of the issue and, The word 'fossil' was coined more than 500 years ago, by German scientist Georgius Agricola, though records describing fossils are much older. the University of Graz in Austria was more tolerant of controversy, and in 1924 it appointed him Download the official NPS app before your next visit, Plate Tectonics and Our National ParksSite Index, Plate TectonicsThe Unifying Theory of Geology, Tectonic Settings of NPS SitesMaster List. Continental Drift Theory (Alfred Wegener, 1922) Plate Tectonics - Breakup of Pangea. While the interiors of the plates are presumed to remain essentially undeformed, plate boundaries are the sites of many of the principal processes that shape the terrestrial surface, including earthquakes, volcanism, and orogeny (that is, formation of mountain ranges).