What Are The Four Evidence Of Continental Drift Theory?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include

continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones’ locations

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What are the four pieces of evidence for continental drift quizlet?

List four pieces of evidence for Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift?

Continents fit like a puzzle, climate clues, fossil clues, and rock layers or formations

. What was the name of the reptile that Wegners found in both South America and Africa?

What evidence best supports the Theory of continental drift?

Fossil Evidence

One type of evidence that strongly supported the Theory of Continental Drift is

the fossil record

. Fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of a similar age have been found on the shores of different continents, suggesting that the continents were once joined.

What evidence supports the Theory of continental drift quizlet?

The Theory of Continental Drift was proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. He used several pieces of evidence to support his theory including

fossils, rocks, glacial markings, coal deposits and the fact that the continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle

. .

What evidence supports the Theory of plate tectonics and continental drift?

Modern continents hold clues to their distant past.

Evidence from fossils, glaciers, and complementary coastlines

helps reveal how the plates once fit together. Fossils tell us when and where plants and animals once existed.

What is the theory of continental drift?

Continental drift describes

one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time

. … In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other.

What types of fossils were used as evidence for continental drift?

Four fossil examples include:

the Mesosaurus, Cynognathus, Lystrosaurus, and Glossopteris

. Modern day representation of the Mesosaurus. The Mesosaurus is known to have been a type of reptile, similar to the modern crocodile, which propelled itself through water with its long hind legs and limber tail.

Which of the following answers is evidence for continental drift except?

Wegener used all the following to provide evidence for continental drift except :

age of selected continental rocks

.

What are evidence of seafloor spreading?

Evidence of Sea Floor Spreading. Harry Hess’s hypothesis about seafloor spreading had collected several pieces of evidence to support the theory. This evidence was from the investigations of

the molten material, seafloor drilling, radiometric age dating and fossil ages, and the magnetic stripes

.

What provides evidence for Wegener’s theory?


Fossils

also provided evidence to support Wegener’s theory. A fossil is any trace of an ancient organism preserved in rock. The fossils of the reptiles Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus and a fernlike plant called Glossopteris have been found on widely separated landmasses.

What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together gizmo?

Q. What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together?

Similar rocks found on different continents.

What evidence from paleomagnetic studies provided support for continental drift?

Paleomagnetists led the revival of the continental drift hypothesis and its transformation into plate tectonics.

Apparent polar wander paths

provided the first clear geophysical evidence for continental drift, while marine magnetic anomalies did the same for seafloor spreading.

What evidence did Alfred Wegener not use to support his idea about continental drift?

Though most of Wegener’s observations about fossils and rocks were correct, he was outlandishly wrong on a couple of key points. For instance, Wegener thought

the continents might have plowed through the ocean crust like icebreakers smashing through ice

.

What are examples of continental drift?


The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada

, for example, are just like mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. Wegener concluded that they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents drifted.

What do the continental plates consist of?

Continental crust is composed of

granitic rocks

which are made up of relatively lightweight minerals such as quartz and feldspar. By contrast, oceanic crust is composed of basaltic rocks, which are much denser and heavier.

What is fossil evidence?

Fossils are

the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the past

. Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today.

What is evidence from rocks?

Evidence from rocks

allows us to understand the evolution of life on Earth

. The rock cycle includes the formation of new sediment and rocks; and rocks are often found in layers, with the oldest generally on the bottom.

How does glacial evidence support continental drift?

There is also much climate evidence supporting continental drift, most notable of which is glacial activity. Alfred Wegener investigated this field and found

an anomaly in the Permo-Carboniferous ice sheet

that was found through glacial till deposits to have once covered all the southern major plates.

Why was continental drift rejected?

The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was

because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents

. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.

When did the theory of continental drift become accepted?

The first truly detailed and comprehensive theory of continental drift was proposed in

1912

by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist.

What is the major evidence that sea floor spreading creates new lithosphere?


The record of magnetic reversals is carried away from each side of the spreading center of a mid-ocean ridge

, showing that the molten rock is creating new lithosphere.

What is continental drift theory Upsc?

Continental drift means

the movement of the continents across the ocean bed

. This drifting happens very, very slowly, over hundreds of million years! According to Alfred Wegener, all the continents formed a single continental mass known as Pangea (Pan=all + Gea=earth).

What evidence of climate change supports the theory of continental drift?


The ‘same animal fossils’ found on different continents

provide evidence climatic change on continent supporting the theory of ‘continental drift’.

What fossil evidence supports the belief that all of these continents were once joined and known as Pangea?


Evidence from fossilized organisms and mountain chains

can be used to reconstruct the positions of today’s continents and landmasses to form the supercontinent Pangea. Glossopteris ferns had very heavy seeds that could not move by wind or drift on ocean currents.

What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together quizlet?

What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together?

Similar rocks found on different continents

. Mountains created by colliding continents. Evidence of glaciers in unexpected places.

Which landmasses show evidence of ancient glaciers?

Evidence of ancient glaciers that existed around 250 million years ago can be found on the landmasses of

South America, Antarctica, Africa, India and Australia

. 4. Based on the evidence of glacier, it is likely that the landmass of (South) Africa was located over the south pole at the time of Pangaea.

How do hotspot volcanoes prove continental drift?

The reason is this –

the tectonic plates are moving

, and this one has been moving above a hot spot from which magma (melted rock) spills out and forms the islands. If this is true, the islands should get older as we move along the chain, away from the currently active volcano Kilauea.

What are causes of continental drift?

The causes of continental drift are perfectly explained by the plate tectonic theory. The earth’s outer shell is composed of plates that move a little bit every year.

Heat coming from the interior of the earth

triggers this movement to occur through convection currents inside the mantle.

What is paleomagnetic evidence?

Paleomagnetism is

the study of the ancient magnetic field of both rocks and the Earth as a whole

. Paleomagnetism has provided very strong quantitative evidence for polar wander and continental drift. … This magnetism is caused by the alignment of the magnetic field of the magnetic minerals within a rock.

Which of the following provide the first clear geophysical evidence for continental drift?


Apparent polar wander paths

provided the first clear geophysical evidence for continental drift, while marine magnetic anomalies did the same for seafloor spreading.

Emily Lee
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Emily Lee
Emily Lee is a freelance writer and artist based in New York City. She’s an accomplished writer with a deep passion for the arts, and brings a unique perspective to the world of entertainment. Emily has written about art, entertainment, and pop culture.