Continental Drift
"Please move your mouse onto the map."
Since the two coastlines fit together so nicely, in 1912, a German meteorologist by the name of Alfred Wegener proposed a hypothesis:
Continental Drift
"Please move your mouse onto the map."
Since the two coastlines fit together so nicely, in 1912, a German meteorologist by the name of Alfred Wegener proposed a hypothesis:
| Hypothesis: | Entire continents were capable of moving along the earth surface. |
He proposed that Africa and South Africa were parts of a much larger continent millions of years ago, and that the continents drifted away to form the present geography of the earth. This was later supported and explained by the Plate Tectonics Model of the earth in 1965.
200 million years ago, the earth's landmass consisted of one supercontinent called Pangea. (click the map for a bigger one)
160 million years ago, Pangea split into two major continents, Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south. Gondwanaland consisted of the elements that later seprated into Africa, Madagasca, India, Australia, Antarctica, New Zealand and South America.
Later India moved into the northern hemisphere to collide with Asia.
However, South America, Antarctica and Australia remained connected until 45 million years ago.
This is where our story begins....
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