Wegener and the Continental Drift Theory

1. Wegener and the Continental Drift Theory

2. Wegener Wegener wasn't the first person to notice that the continents fit together BUT he usually gets credit for it As early as 1620 (and probably before) people were wondering about this.

3. Continental Drift Theory Wegener, an astronomer and meteorologist, formed a hypothesis that the continents had once been joined together as a single land mass and had slowly drifted apart This supercontinent was called Pangaea and it existed about 300 million years ago

4. 300 million years ago: Paleozoic Era Reptiles and winged insects were appearing Tropical forests, which later formed coal deposits, covered much of the land at this time

5. Wegener's Hypothesis: Wegener studied land features, fossils, and evidence of climate change

6. Evidence: Land features—when you put the continents back together..... Mountain ranges line up Rocks match up Coal fields line up Continents fit together

7. Evidence from fossils: Lystrosaurus and other critters' fossils show up in places now separated by wide oceans

8. Evidence from climate studies: Deep scratches left by glaciers found in warm parts of Africa Fossils of tropical plants found in Antarctica Wegener explained this by saying that the continents had not always been in their present positions Does this make sense to you?

9. Wegener's theory was rejected! He couldn't explain how the continents moved. He didn't know about the tectonic plates! People thought he was a nut job!

10. Once Scientists figured out how the plates move..... Wegener finally got some respect (after he died, of course) Died in 1930 while in Greenland; his body remains in the ice 2012 is the year of Wegener—100 years after he presented his theory

11. Continental drift theory Continental Drift theory is one of the foundations of the Plate Tectonics theory--which allows us to explain all the things that occur on and in Earth--like earthquakes, volcanoes and the formation of mountains.