What evidence supported Wegener’s hypothesis? Wegener gathered evidence from different scientific fields to support his ideas about continental drift. He studied land features, fossils, and evidence of climate change. You just studied 30 terms!
Which evidence does support Wegener’s concept of continental drift?
Evidence for continental drift
Wegener knew that fossil plants and animals such as mesosaurs , a freshwater reptile found only South America and Africa during the Permian period, could be found on many continents. He also matched up rocks on either side of the Atlantic Ocean like puzzle pieces.
What evidence supports Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift?
Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The fossils of these organisms are found on lands that are now far apart. Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very close to the equator.
What are 5 pieces of evidence that support continental drift?
The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones .
What are the 4 evidences of continental drift?
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 .
Why was Wegener’s theory of continental drift rejected for so long?
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.
Why was Wegener’s continental drift rejected?
Wegener’s inability to provide an adequate explanation of the forces responsible for continental drift and the prevailing belief that the earth was solid and immovable resulted in the scientific dismissal of his theories.
What was the response to Wegener’s hypothesis?
The main problem with Wegener’s hypothesis of Continental Drift was the lack of a mechanism . He did not have an explanation for how the continents moved. His attempt to explain it using tides only made things worse. But both Galileo and Darwin had serious flaws in their theories when they were first presented.
What are two pieces of evidence for seafloor spreading?
Several types of evidence from the oceans supported Hess’s theory of sea-floor spreading- evidence from molten material, magnetic stripes, and drilling samples . This evidence also led sci- entists to look again at Wegener’s theory of continental drift.
What is continental drift theory explain?
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 is the evidence for Pangea?
Glacial deposits, specifically till, of the same age and structure are found on many separate continents that would have been together in the continent of Pangaea. Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes the presence of similar and identical species on continents that are now great distances apart .
How do we know Pangea existed?
The rock formations of eastern North America, Western Europe, and northwestern Africa were later found to have a common origin, and they overlapped in time with the presence of Gondwanaland. Together, these discoveries supported the existence of Pangea. ... Modern geology has shown that Pangea did actually exist .
Where is Earth’s heat energy most concentrated?
Although heat from the center of the Earth is migrating to the surface everywhere, the heat is concentrated at the edges of tectonic plates .
What supports Wegener’s theory of plate tectonics?
The mobilists were in the opposite camp and supported Wegener’s ideas, since many of them had seen evidence for continental motion, especially in the Alps. ... Since the north pole is essentially fixed, except during periods of magnetic reversals, this piece of evidence strongly supports the idea of plate tectonics.
Who rejected Wegener’s?
As late as 1953—just five years before Carey introduced the theory of plate tectonics—the theory of continental drift was rejected by the physicist Scheidegger on the following grounds.
What did Pangaea mean?
Pangea, also spelled Pangaea, in early geologic time, a supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth. ... Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “ all the Earth .”
