Glog text
Pangaea
Alfred Wegener, a German scientist, pioneered the theory of continental drift. He suggested the idea of a large super-continent which he named Pangaea meaning "all land."
The image below shows you how the continents have changed over time.
Harry Hess proposed the idea of sea-floor spreading. Sea-floor spreading occurs when the mid-ocean ranges heat up and then cools down which pushes the older rock further away from the mid-ocean ridge. That is how Pangaea formed into 7 continents. The mid-ocean ridge slowly pushed the older rock away making room for new rock.
Evidnce that Pangaea Existed
*On North America, the East-coast mountains and the West-shore mountains on Europe match each other.
*In South America and Africa, fossils of the same land dwelling animals and plants have been found. These fossils include: Cynognathus, Glossopteris and Mesosaurus. These lizard-like animals did not possess gills or flippers and they had small brains suggesting the only way they could have been in the same place at the same time was if they had travelled by land.
*Australia, Antartica, the west-coast of Africa and the Indian peninsula all contain Lystrosaurus and Glossopteris fossils. Again this suggests, the continents were joined at some point in history.
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