Continental Drift and The Story of Pangaea

Learning Activity 2ab Unit B: The Dynamic Earth

Learning Target:I can describe Wegener’s evidence for continental drift (DOK1)I can identify weaknesses in Wegener’s ideas and why continental drift was not accepted by the scientific community (DOK1) 

Essential Question

How and why have our ideas of plate movement changed through time (past and

present) and what evidence do we have for our changing ideas?

Alfred Wegener

• In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed the idea of “Continental Drift”

• Continental Drift states that continents have slowly moved over the Earth’s surface

Pangaea

• Wegener believed that all continents were once connected in one large continent called “Pangaea”

• Pangaea broke apart 200 million years ago and the continents drifted to their present locations.

The Theory of Continental Drift

• Complete the concept map.

Continental drift

Landforms

Fossils

Climate

Is supported by evidence from

Wegener used 3 types of evidence

1. Evidence from landforms- Mountain ranges line up in Africa and South America- European coalfields line up with similar fields in North America- Continents fit together like a puzzle

2. Evidence from fossils - Fossils of the same species have been found

in places now separated by oceans

3. Evidence from climate -Fossils of warm climate creatures have been

found in ice-covered places

• Wegener’s theory was not widely accepted until the 1960’s because he could not provide a satisfactory explanation for the forces that push or pull the continents

Check for Understanding

Write a paragraph summarizing the main ideas of continental drift.