scientist Alfred Wegener

Wegener was a German meteorologist, geophysicist and polar researcher. In 1915 he published ‘The Origin of Continents and Oceans’, which outlined his theory of Continental Drift. Wegener was a member of four expeditions to Greenland.

Alfred Wegener

The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.

In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed a theory that the continents had once been joined, and over time had drifted apart. This was the Continental Drift Theory. The reaction to Alfred Wegener’s theory tells us much about the workings of science. We are taught that modern scientists are driven only by reason and facts.

Wegener published his theory in full in 1915, but his contemporaries mostly found it implausible. By 1930 it had been rejected by most geologists, and it sank into obscurity for the next few decades.

Pangea’s existence was first proposed in 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener as a part of his theory of continental drift. Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”

Ancient Greek

Pangaea. [ (pan-jee-uh) ] A former “supercontinent” on the Earth. In the distant past a large landmass, Pangaea, included all the present continents, which broke up and drifted apart.

Pangaea was divided into Gondwana to the south and Laurasia to the north. Today’s Mediterranean Sea is a remnant of the Tethys Sea.

Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago. Gondwana was half of the Pangaea supercontinent, along with a northern supercontinent known as Laurasia.

The main driving force of plate tectonics is gravity. If a plate with oceanic lithosphere meets another plate, the dense oceanic lithosphere dives beneath the other plate and sinks into the mantle. However, convection also drives plate tectonics. …

The continents fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once united into a single supercontinent named Pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient Greek. He suggested that Pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to their current positions.

Australia

Pangea was formed through years and years of landmass formation and movement. After a while, the Angaran continent (near the North Pole) began to move south and merged with the northern part of the growing Euramerican continent, forming the supercontinent that came to be known as Pangea.

About 200 million years ago, all the continents on Earth were actually one huge “supercontinent” surrounded by one enormous ocean. This gigantic continent, called Pangaea , slowly broke apart and spread out to form the continents we know today. All Earth’s continents were once combined in one supercontinent, Pangaea.