1. The continental drift theory proposed that continents were once joined together in a single landmass called Pangaea, but have since drifted apart. 2. The theory was developed by Alfred Wegener in the early 1900s. 3. Wegener provided several lines of evidence to support the theory, including matching fossil distributions, mountain ranges, and coastlines across continents, as well as evidence that glaciers once extended to the equator.

1. Read through the following slides and take
notes on page 15 of your science notebook.
Your notes need to include the following:
1. What is the continental drift theory
2. Who came up with the continental drift
theory
3. What was the evidence to support the
theory

2. The Theory of Continental Drift

3. The World

4. ALFRED WEGENER
THEORY OF CONTINENTAL
DRIFT
Found evidence for
PANGAEA and
proposed the theory of
continental drift.

5. Continental Drift
• Theory that continents were
once part of a single
landmass that broke apart
and have moved to their
present locations.
• can drift apart from one
another and have done so in
the past
For more information about what the continents looked like throughout the Earth’s
History go to:
htttp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

6. Pangaea
Pangaea is the name given to the single
landmass that was present 200 million
years ago

7. Continents
“fit together”
like puzzle
pieces
WEGENER’S EVIDENCE

8. WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
Fossil Evidence
•fossils are remains
of living things that
lived long ago.
•similar fossils have
been discovered in
matching coastlines
on different
continents.

9. WEGENER’S EVIDENCE

10. WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
• Mountains
– Some mountain ranges on different continents
seem to match.
• Ex: ranges in Canada match Norway and Sweden
• Ex: Appalachian Mtn. match UK mtn

12. WEGENER’S EVIDENCE
• Climatic evidence such as glaciers in
areas that are now close to the Equator

13. Satellites used to
measure the
movement of
continents
• Laser Geodynamics
Satellite (LAGEOS)
Evidence of Continental Drift (today)

14. The Plates Move…
So what now?
Which way?
• 50 million years

15. http://www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii/220/PRI/PR
I_PT_contdrift.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-
nature/travel-through-deep-time-interactive-
earth-180952886/
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets
/science/virtual_labs/ES11/ES11.html
Try these links below: