1. Alfred Wegner was both a meteorologist and a geologist. He also is the author of the book The Origin of Continents
and Oceans.
Alfred Wegner suggested the idea of continental drift. He believed that the Earth once consisted of a
supercontinent, which was all of the continents conjoined as one. This was given the name Pangaea. Over millions and
millions of years however, he suggested that Pangaea started to break off in blocks and drift to where they are today.
Alfred had four different forms of evidence that he used in order to support his idea. The first one is The
Continental Jigsaw Puzzle. The coastlines had remarkable similarities and that they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. His
second form of evidence is Fossils Match across the Seas. Identical fossil organisms matched in both Africa and South
America. The third form of evidence was Rock Types and Geological Features. Wegner had found 2.2 billion year old rocks
in Brazil that looked like rocks in Africa that were seemingly the same age. Mountain belts were another example of this
evidence. His last and fourth form of evidence was Ancient Climates. About 300 million years ago there were ice sheets
that covered immense parts of the Southern Hemisphere and also India. His idea was however rejected by the scientific
community. There were many unanswered questions and not enough evidence. He didn’t couldn’t pinpoint a credible
mechanism for continental drift and there was no evidence to prove that the ocean floor was weak enough to allow the
continents to pass without becoming misshapen for example.
The continents are still drifting and changing today. In another 100 million years I would guess that they will be
even further from each other than they are now.
The Plate Tectonics paradigm is very important because it helps us to figure out the movement of the continents
not only over the past millions of years but also for the movement and shaping of them in the future.