Wegener's Theory of Continental Drift

Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift
Continental Drift
Pangaea
Laurasia Gondwanaland
North
Eurasia
America
India Africa Antarctica

South America Australia
South
America Africa
Antarctica Australia
The Theory of Continental Drift
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
Wegener’s Fossil Correlation/Evidences
Evidence for continental drift
Matching glacier deposits

300 million years ago
The Gondwana system of sediments

from India is known to have its
counter parts in 6 different landmasses
of the Southern Hemisphere.
The continent of Gondwana was named

by Australian Scientist Eduard Suess,
after the Gondwana Region of central
northern India which is derived from
Sanskrit meaning ‘forest of Gonds’
Similarity between Hercynian and Caledonian Mountain
Criticism of the Theory
• Jigsaw fit is not a complete fit.
• SIAL floats over SIMA (contrasting statement).
• The force of Buoyancy and differential Gravitational Force (equator ward) and
Tidal Force (Westward) are not strong enough to move such huge continents, they
will have to be millions of times stronger.
• Wegener failed to explain that why drift only began in carboniferous period
(Mesozoic Era) and not before.
• Modern theories accept the existence of Pangaea and related landmasses but give
a very different explanation to the cause of drift (modern scientist largely focuses
on the Theory of Plate Tectonics for the movements of plate or in other words
the continents).
Wegener’s Theory Clarification
• Wegener’s continental drift theory was rejected due to lack of
mechanism.
• Later on British geologist Arthur Holmes defended the theory
of continental drift and proposed that continents were moved
by convection current powered by heat generated from
radioactive decay.
• After his death new evidences obtained from ocean floor
exploration regarding sea floor spreading revived leading to
the development of plate tectonics.
Thank You
• Magnetic iron bearing minerals such as magnetite when solidifies from
molten lava align themselves with respect to the earth’s magnetic field
(point to the north magnetic pole) thus preserves record of where the
rocks had been formed with respect to earth magnetic field.
• Thus the direction and inclination of magnetism of the rocks can tell us
where the minerals of the rocks formed with respect to the magnetic field.
• Geologist noted that the magnetite crystals in the new rocks (of present)
pointed to the current magnetic north pole.
• But in the older rocks of the same age located on the same continent the
magnetite crystals were not pointing towards the current magnetic north,
instead they all were pointing to another single point.
• Further moving back in time, rocks of the same age on the same
continent, but further older were not pointing towards the magnetic pole
as in the second case but they all were pointing to same point which was
newly located (magnetic north of that time).
• This shows that although the magnetite crystals were pointing to the
magnetic north pole, but rocks of different ages were pointing towards
different poles.
• There were three possible explanations for this puzzling phenomena.
 The continent remained fixed and the north magnetic pole moved .
 The north magnetic pole stood still and the continent moved.
 Both the continent and north pole moved.
• Now the scientist looked at where the magnetite crystals pointed for rocks of the
same age. They found that these rocks pointed to different magnetic poles.
• For example: 400 mya the European north pole was different from the North
American north pole at the same time. At 250 mya the position of north pole was
again different for the two continents. (because of different drifting speed and
direction of both the continents)
• Thus, in this case if we assume that continents remained stationary then there
should be two poles (because Europe and North America had two different poles
at the same time).
• But, since there is only one north pole today the scientist decided that the best
explanation has to involve only one north magnetic pole. This meant that second
explanation must be correct, that the magnetic north pole had remained fixed but
the continents had moved.
• To test this, geologists fitted the continents together as Wegener had
done. They discovered that there had indeed been only one magnetic
north pole but that the continents had drifted. They renamed the
phenomenon of the magnetic pole that seemed to move but actually did
not apparent polar wander.
• This evidence for continental drift gave geologists renewed interest in
understanding how continents could move about on the planet's surface.
And we know that the magnetic pole wanders, too, so the correct
explanation was that both the continents and the magnetic poles move.
Evidences from Paleo-Magnetism
APWP: Apparent Polar Wandering Path

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Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift

India Africa Antarctica

• Theory that continents were

• can drift apart from one another

Matching glacier deposits

The Gondwana system of sediments

The continent of Gondwana was named

APWP: Apparent Polar Wandering Path

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