Tectonic Plates Worksheet

I: The objective of this lab was to understand how plate boundaries work. We were to find the major plates and compare and contrast them.

The theory of the continental drift is that the continents have slowly drifted to their current location. Alfred Wegener believed that all the seven continents were once a supercontinent known as Pangea. A discovery that came from climate clues like glacial deposits in South America, Africa, Australia and India. Rock and fossils matching evidence found in South America and Africa.

3. Alfred Wegener was a polar explorer and visionary. Describe how his early work was viewed with skepticism and how ultimately his theory on continental drift was proven. What kinds of evidence did Wegener rely on to substantiate his continental drift hypotheses (Pangaea)?

Wegener provided numerous explanations and documentation in support of his continental drift theory. He provided two fossils as evidence. Glossopteris because it had been found on several continents that were widely separated. Glossopteris, also known as a seed fern fossil, was too large to be transported by the wind. The other was Mesosaurus which was a small aquatic freshwater reptile (Lutgens & Tarbuck, 2014, p. 154). Other scientists believed this was possible because land bridges had once existed or explained it away as drafting. Wegener most likely did not offer fossil sharks or jellyfish as evidence due to the fact that these fish inhabit all major oceans on the planet.

Alfred Wegener had a big role in the Continental Drift. Alfred Wegener is an explorer, German polar researcher, geophysicist, and a meteorologist. His theory on the Continental drift is that once all the continents were combined together called Pangaea. To help support his theory is the distribution of fossils, distribution of rocks and structures, and tropics.

How can we tell if tectonic plates move and if the earth was once one huge land mass? Scientist Alfred Wegner produced three pieces of evidence to support The Theory of Plate Tectonics. Due to modern technology, we are able to have a greater comprehension of his research. One of his three documentations refers to the fact that certain continents have coastline similarities. For example, the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa have comparable forms. This led him to believe they were once connected to each other. The second piece of evidence states that fossils of plants and reptiles were similar. Two of the similar fossils found consist of the following the Mesosaurus, a reptile fossil, and the Glossopteris, a plant fossil. These fossils were found across the southern continents or Pangea. The third piece of evidence consist of the fact that similar geologic patterns of rocks

Using geological evidence, scientists have determined that there was, in fact, once a supercontinent. This supercontinent, Pangea, was made up of the seven continents and was a large landmass surrounded by water. The theory of a supercontinent originated from Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift. This theory suggests that continents are slowly drifting around earth. Wegener wasn’t the only one who proposed this theory. The idea has been around since the 16th century, the first time being by Abraham Ortelius. Wegener used geologic, fossil, and glacial evidence from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean to support his theory. During the 1960s, discoveries of sea-floor spreading and magnetic reversal proved that Wegener's theory was real.

Burchfield and Royden (1991) cast doubted the island arc-collision hypothesis because: 1. the arc west of the North American continent and its structures seem more to face west rather than east. 2. The Havallah basin sediments deposited before and after the emplacement of the Roberts mountains allochthon. 3. Deposition occurred in a paleogeographic location that should have been occupied

Have you ever thought of the idea that the continents were once connected? Scientists believe that around 300 million years ago the seven continents we know today were once connected to each other to form one massive continent called Pangea. There is a lot of evidence that supports this idea. First of all, some continents have coastlines that would fit together like puzzle pieces. Secondly, there have been almost identical fossils found on different continents separated by miles of ocean. Lastly, similar glacier deposits are on four different continents.

In the 1960s, geophysicists proposed a theory that all the continents are slowly moving away from each other, called plate tectonics. Plate tectonics supported evidence towards Wegener's theory of one supercontinent. Scientists figured plate tectonics out by looking at different ages of oceanic and continental crust.

The majority of scientists belief that the comentis moved at one time. Alfred wegener claim that fossils were ones found . The evidence that best supports wegener claim is he found fossils at one time. Another example of strong evidence for continental Drift is that fossils were ones found in America and Africa land and river.

In the beginning of Wegener’s research to prove his Continental Drift theory, he found clues from fossil evidence from millions of years ago. Different animals, such as the Cynognathus, Lystrasaurus, and Mesosaurus gave proof that the continents have moved. The Cynognathus was a land animal, whose fossils where found in Africa and South America. Another land animal was the Lystrasaurus, whose fossils were found in India, Antarctica, and Africa. Neither the Lystrasaurus nor Cynognathus could travel that great of a distance over water. Also the Lystrasurus lived in warmer climates, and today Antarctica is not a warm climate. The Mesosaurus was a fresh water reptile that was found in fresh water in South America and Africa. The oceans are salt water, so the continents must have been together so the Mesosaurus could walk from lake to lake or pond to pond.

Alfred Wegener’s theory about the continents moving was continental drift. He based his argument over the observation the many of the coastlines on opposite sides of the ocean fit together. This observation and the idea that continents had once been joined, had been made previously. Abraham Ortelius a Flemish mapmaker from and geographer in the 1500s Pointed out that the coasts of the Americas and Europe and Africa matched and this suggested they had been torn apart from each other. Alfred also noticed that fossils similar to each other were being found oceans apart. He tried to explain this by hypothesizing that a very long time ago all of Earth’s continents were joined and made one giant supercontinent named Pangaea. His theory was that at

Eventually the crew and the Deep Sea Drilling Project found what they were looking for. They drilled 17 holes at 10 different sites along the oceanic ridge between South America and Africa. The recorded samples had definitive proof for continental drift and seafloor renewal at rift zones. Continental Drift was a theory created by a German scientist named Alfred Wegener and basically what the theory means is that the Earth’s continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, Africa, and Australia) were not all where they are now on the map and will not

In a few short years, Wegener’s theory was denied. However, his theory was the first time the idea of continental movement was announced to the science community. His theory laid the foundation for the advancement in twenty-first century plate tectonics. Years would pass and more evidence became available to support the idea that plates were in fact in motion and changed over a period of time (Fowler p476).