Continental Drift Hypothesis

● Most Geologists held the view that the ocean basins and continents had a fixed
Geographic positions.
● Tectonic processes are responsible for the deformation of the Earth’s crust forming
mountains , continents , and ocean basins.
● The idea of land masses being capable of movement are rejected until the Scientific
Revolution began.
● Alfred Wegener - German meteorologist and Geophysicist, wrote “The Origin of
Continents and Oceans”
● Edward Suess
Continental Drift Hypothesis
● A single supercontinent consisting of all Earth’s landmasses once existed - Pangaea
● 200 million years ago, Pangaea began to fragment into smaller landmasses.
● These continental blocks then drifted to their present positions over a span of millions of
years
● Laurasia - North America and Eurasia
● Gondwana - South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, Australia
Evidences
1. The Continental Jigsaw Puzzle - continents might be once have been joined together
due to the remarkable similarities in their coastlines
Argument: Shorelines are continually modified by wave erosion and depositional process
❖ Sir Edward Bullard and two associates constructed a map that pieced together
the continental shelves of South America and Africa at a depth of about 900
meters
2. Fossils matching across the seas - there was some type of land connection needed to
explain the existence of similar Mesozoic age life-forms on widely separated land
masses
★ South America and Africa - fossil remains of Cynognathus , a triassic land reptile
approximately 3m long. Fossil remains of the freshwater reptile Mesosaurus
★ Africa to India to Antarctica - fossil evidence of the Triassic land reptile
Lystosaurus
★ South America to Africa to India to Antarctica to Australia - fossils of fern
Glossopteris , found in all of the southern continents , show that they were once
joined
★ Mesosaurus - if it had been able to make the long journey across the South
Atlantic , its remains would likely to be more widely distributed.
★ Glossopteris - This plant, identified by its tongue-shaped leaves and seeds that
were too large to be carried by the wind. They grew only in climates - like Central
Alaska
★ Argument: Rafting, Transoceanic land bridges and island stepping stones could
explain these migrations
3. Rock types and Geologic Features - rocks found in a particular region on one continent
closely match in age and type to those found in adjacent positions in the once adjoining
 continent. Rock types on mountain belts that terminate at one coastline reappear on
landmasses across the ocean.
❖ Matching mountain ranges - when these land masses are positioned as they
were about 200 million years ago, the mountain chains form a nearly continuous
belt
❖ “It is just as if we were to refit torn pieces of a newspaper by matching their
edges and then check whether the lines of print run smoothly across. If they do,
there is nothing left but to conclude that the pieces were in fact joined this way.”
4. Ancient Climates - Paleozoic Glaciations in currently tropical areas . In the
supercontinent Pangaea , the southern continents are joined together and located near
the south pole. Today’s northern continents were nearer the equator and account for the
tropical swamps that generated the vast coal deposits.
● Argument: Our planet experienced a period of extreme global cooling

Rejection of the Drift Hypothesis

● 1924 - Wegener's proposal attracted open criticism
● One of the main objections to Wegener's hypothesis stemmed from his inability to
identify a credible mechanism for continental drift.
Objections
● Objection #1 - Wegener's proposed that gravitational force of the moon and sun that
produces tides on Earth were also capable of gradually moving the continents across the
globe.
● Physicist Harold Jeffreys correctly countered that tidal forces strong enough to move the
continents would have resulted in halting the rotation of the Earth itself which of course
has not happened.
● Objection #2 - Wegener also incorrectly suggested that the larger and sturdier continents
broke through thinner oceanic crust, much as ice breakers cut through ice.
● No evidence existed to suggest that the ocean floor was weak enough to permit passage
of the continents without the continents being deformed in the process

Plate Tectonic Theory

● States that the Earth's solid outer crust , the lithosphere is separated into plates that
move over the asthenosphere , the molten upper portion of the mantle. Oceanic and
continental plates come together , spread apart and interact at boundaries all over the
planet.
Lithosphere
● The uppermost and coolest part of the mantle.
● Constitutes the earth's strong outer layer
Asthenosphere
● Hotter and weaker region in the mantle that lies below the lithosphere
● The rocks on this area are very near their melting points
How do the plates move?
● The lithosphere respond to forces acting on it by bending or breaking.
● The asthenosphere respond to forces by flowing
 ● Convection current in the mantle
● The layers move independently
● Seafloor spreading - a geologic process in which tectonic plates large slabs of earth's
lithosphere split apart from each other . Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity
processes are the result of mantle convection
Evidences
1. Ocean drilling - DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT
● Gather samples of the ocean floor in order to establish its age.
● The sediments increase in age with increasing distance from the ridge
● The youngest oceanic crust would be found in the ridge crest.
● Sediments are almost entirely absent on the ridge crest but increases along with
the distance from the ridge
● Glomar Challenger - a drilling shop capable of working in water thousand of
meters deep, was built. Hundreds of holes were drilled through the layers of
sediments that blanket the ocean crust
2. Mantle plumes and Hot spots
● Hawaiian Island-Emperor Seamount Chain
● Volcanoes increase in age with increasing distance from the Big island of Hawaii
● Mantle plume - a cylinder shaped upwelling hot rock which triggers partial melting
● Hotspots - surface manifestation of mantle plumes . An area of volcanism, high
heat flow and crustal uplifting
3. Paleomagnetism
● Magnetic poles roughly align with the geographic poles
● Lava (basaltic composition) rich in magnetite which can be influenced by Earth's
magnetic field.
● The magnetite grains in molten lava are non magnetic and becomes magnetic
when cooled down
● Once tha magnetite solidify , their magnetism are frozen , pointing toward the
position of magnetic poles at the time of their formation.
● Rocks that are formed thousands or millions of years ago contain a record of the
direction of the magnetic poles at the time of their formation
● Apparent Polar wandering - either the magnetic north and south poles had
migrated or that the poles remained in the place and the continents had drifted
beneath them. A more acceptable explanation for the apparent polar wandering
was provided by Wegener's hypothesis . If the magnetic poles remain stationary
,their apparent movement is produced by continental drift.
● Magnetic reversal - earth's magnetic field periodically reverses polarity. During
magnetic reversal, the magnetic north pole becomes the magnetic south pole
and vice versa .

Seafloor spreading
● A process that occurs at oceanic ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through
volcanic activity and gradually moves away from the ridge.(HARRY HAMMOND HESS)
● Oceanic Ridges- elevated areas of seafloor characterized by heat flow and volcanism
 ● A divergent boundary is causing two oceanic plates to move away from another resulting
in spreading of the seafloor.
● As the plates move apart, new materials wells up and cools onto the age of plates.
Facts from the Seafloor
● Typical rates of spreading average around 5 cm (2 inches) per year , roughly the same
rate at which human fingernails grow
● Earths is not growing bigger
● Subduction zones - the Earth's surface area remains constant because older and denser
portions of oceanic lithosphere descend into the mantle at a rate equal to the seafloor
production.
● The activity occurs along the convergent plate boundaries, where two plates move
toward each other and leading edge of one is bent downward as it slides beneath the
other.
● Deep ocean trench - surface manifestation of convergent plates descending into the
mantle

Mantle Convection
● Large amounts of heat are transferred by convection currents, heat from the core and
the mantle itself causes convection currents in the mantle.
● Over millions of years, the great heat and pressure in the mantle cause solid mantle rock
to flow very slowly.
● The hot rock eventually cools and sinks back through the mantle in cynical manner.
● Heat from the mantle's convection current makes the crust more plastic and less dense.
● When the crust cracks ,hot magma fueled by mantle convection bubbles up to fill the
fractures.
● The magma on the surface will be cooled down to form a new surface on the lithosphere
.
● The older and denser oceanic lithosphere is pulled down through the trench along with
the convection current