In 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed the theory that all the continents were once all one continent and then later drifted apart and separated leading to the seven continents we have today. He thought that 200 million years ago there was one large continent that he called Pangea, which means “All-Earth.” During the Jurassic period the continents were believed to break up into two smaller continents which were called Gondwanaland and Laurasia. The continents were breaking into land masses towards the end of the Cretaceous period that like the continents we know today. Although Wegener's theory was made alone and was more done than those before him, Wegener gave credit to a number of past authors with alike ideas: Franklin Coxworthy (between 1848 and 1890), Roberto Mantovani (between 1889 and 1909), William Henry Pickering and Frank Bursley Taylor . Eduard Suess had stated the theory of a supercontinent Gondwana in 1885 and the Tethys Ocean in 1893. John Perry wrote a paper in 1895 saying that the inside of Earth was fluid, and disagreeing with Lord Kelvin on the age of the earth.
After closely observing a globe it shows that the continents come together like a puzzle : the west African coastline seems to fit into the east coast of South …show more content…
This idea is based on the fact that as a substance is heated its density decreases and rises to the surface until it is cooled and sinks again. This repeated heating and cooling results in a current which may be enough to cause continents to move. Arthur Holmes suggested that this thermal convection was like a conveyor belt and that the upwelling pressure could break apart a continent and then force the broken continent in opposite directions carried by the convection currents. This idea received very little attention at the
After closely observing a globe it shows that the continents come together like a puzzle : the west African coastline seems to fit into the east coast of South …show more content…
This idea is based on the fact that as a substance is heated its density decreases and rises to the surface until it is cooled and sinks again. This repeated heating and cooling results in a current which may be enough to cause continents to move. Arthur Holmes suggested that this thermal convection was like a conveyor belt and that the upwelling pressure could break apart a continent and then force the broken continent in opposite directions carried by the convection currents. This idea received very little attention at the