Continental Drift/ Plate Tectonics

Who is the person credited with developing the theory of continental drift?

• Harry Hess

• Galileo

• Alfred Wegener

• Newton

What is this a picture of?

• plate tectonics

• continental drift

• pangea

• glacier scaring

What does the theory of continental drift state?

• The continents were once joined in a super-continent and have moved over time

• Continents are stationary and do not move

• The Earth is broken into lithospheric plates that move due to convection currents

• none of the above

What evidence did Wegener use in his theory?

• Continents and fossils fitting together/matching-up like puzzle pieces 

• glacier scars and evidence from temperature

• mountain ranges and coal deposits line up across continents

• all of the above

Why did no one believe Wegener's thoery?

• He could not explain HOW the continents moved

• He didn't have evidence

• His data was wrong

• He didn't use the right technology to gather data

What two specific continents fit together most noticeably?

• Africa and North America

• South America and Europe

• South America and Africa

• Antartica and Africa

What does the word Pangea mean?

• big land mass

• old land

• all land

How does fossil evidence support Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift?

• Similar fossils are found along continental margins that appear to join together.

• Fossils are found in areas where the present-day climate could not have supported the organisms that made the fossils.

• Similar fossils of giant, land-dwelling dinosaurs are found on continents separated by oceans.

• all of the above

Why was Wegener's theory not accepted?

• He had no proof of how they were moving

• He had no evidence

• He was married

• He was not a Scientist

Most geologist think that the movement of Earth's tectonic plates is caused by

• the rotation of the Earth.

• the Earth's magnetic field.

• subduction.

• convection currents.