plate tectonics

• what are the seven major continents

  south America, north America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia & Antarctica
• In 1912 German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed that in the beginning, the Earth has only one giant landmass called Pangaea, which means "all land."
• He hypothesized that this giant landmass slowly broke into smaller land pieces that eventually drifted away from each other which made the seven continents that we now know. This is known as the Continental drift theory.


  Alfred wegener
• The continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.This is most evident in the matching coastlines of South America and Africa.
• Similar animal and plant fossils were found in different continents.


  The fossils of the reptile mesosaurus were found along the coastlines of South America and Africa which are separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, the fossil of a fernlike plant glossopteris was found distributed in all the continents.
• In the matching coastlines of northwestern Africa and eastern Brazil, South America, the rocks are of the same type and age.
• Geologic features such as mountain ranges are found along matching coastlines like that of the Appalachian Mountains and Scandinavia.


  the Appalachian Mountains and Scandinavia.
• Coal seams are found in Antarctica.


  Coal is produced from organic matter like dead plants and animals.
• Tillites, which are deposits of rock debris left by glaciers, were found in Africa, South America, India, and Australia. They were of the same age and type.
• Sir Arthur Holmes, an English geologist, proposed the presence of convection cells in the Earth’s mantle.

  The continuous process of rising and sinking of rocks produces convection cells or convection currents. These currents cause the tectonic plates, which include the crust, to move and drift.