Since the dawn of modern thought, humanity has been an intensely inquisitive species. By nature, people of learned though processes- scientists, religious figures, and philosophers alike- ask questions as to why things the way they are, how things work, and how the world as we know it came to be. One of those questions that has intrigued us since the 1500s is the entire earth itself- more specifically how the continents came to be configured this way.
As the technology for exploration advanced in the 1500-1600s, more explorers had the opportunity to map the globe. As the cartography of the earth came into its final fruition for the time, people noticed some strange things. “the Atlantic coasts of Africa and South America, although separated thousands of miles, seem as though they could fit together” (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism Pg. 1). Because of this observation many explanations for this apparent phenomenon arose. Mapmakers and religious figures alike had their own explanations for the shape of the continents. People like Dutch mapmaker Abraham Ortelius claimed that the continents [Africa and South America] had been torn apart by “floods and earthquakes” (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism …show more content…
He postulated that continents had always been moving are moving at this very moment, and over the course of millions of years, the continents had broken apart from a single landmass (Pangea) to its current state it is now. This explained why the continents could fit together like jigsaw puzzles and that similar fossils could be found on the coastlines of landmasses separated by thousands of miles (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism Pg. 2). The larger scientific community came after Wegner like a witch hunt, scrutinizing his findings, largely because he was a meteorologist by trade and was viewed as an untrained
As the technology for exploration advanced in the 1500-1600s, more explorers had the opportunity to map the globe. As the cartography of the earth came into its final fruition for the time, people noticed some strange things. “the Atlantic coasts of Africa and South America, although separated thousands of miles, seem as though they could fit together” (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism Pg. 1). Because of this observation many explanations for this apparent phenomenon arose. Mapmakers and religious figures alike had their own explanations for the shape of the continents. People like Dutch mapmaker Abraham Ortelius claimed that the continents [Africa and South America] had been torn apart by “floods and earthquakes” (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism …show more content…
He postulated that continents had always been moving are moving at this very moment, and over the course of millions of years, the continents had broken apart from a single landmass (Pangea) to its current state it is now. This explained why the continents could fit together like jigsaw puzzles and that similar fossils could be found on the coastlines of landmasses separated by thousands of miles (Continents: A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism Pg. 2). The larger scientific community came after Wegner like a witch hunt, scrutinizing his findings, largely because he was a meteorologist by trade and was viewed as an untrained