Plate Tectonics Theory

Continetal Drift and the theory of Plate Tectonics

The theory was pioneered by a German scientist called Alfred Wegener.  He suggested that all the present continents were joined together to create one super-continent called Pangaea before drifting apart to Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south.  Wegener was ridiculed for his theory but it has been refined and now is the accepted theory today.

Wegeners theory was based on evidence from several sciences.  The evidence included:

• the jigsaw fit of South America and Africa and less obvious fits elsewhere
• matching rock sequences linking northwest Scotland and eastern Canada
• coal (formed only under warm and wet conditions) found…