UNIT 11

CONTINENTAL DRIFT
HYPOTHESIS
Structure____________________________________________________________________
11.1 Introduction 11.5 Criticism of Continental Drift
Expected Learning Outcomes 11.6 Activity
11.2 Continental Drift Hypothesis 11.7 Summary
Early Ideas about Continental Drift 11.8 Terminal Questions
Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis 11.9 References
11.3 Mechanism of Continental Drift 11.10 Further/Suggested Readings
11.4 Evidences of Continental Drift 11.11 Answers
Geological Evidences

Palaeontological Evidences

11.1 INTRODUCTION
You have read in Unit 10 that Earth is geodynamically an active planet. Therefore, we observe huge
diversity in geotectonic features such as the oceans, continents and continental margins of the
Earth. The present distribution of oceans and continents is also a product of its dynamism. In other
words, the Earth is not stable or static system; it is continuously changing the positions of its
constituent landmasses/continents since a long time but not sure from its origin around 4.5 billion
years (Ga) ago. If you see the map of the world showing the present distribution of land and water,
you may observe that the east coast line of Africa and west coast line of South America on the
either sides of the South Atlantic Ocean are greatly resembling and this led to a thought of
possibility that these were once joined together, then separated from each other and drifted to their
current locations. Indeed, this observation initially was made during 16th century that led to the
emergence of an early concept of the continental drift.
The rock records of past geological activities preserved in rocks of both oceanic and continental
crusts have yielded many clues that showed that once existing single continent broke apart moved
to their present destinations thereby single ocean surrounding a single continent converted into

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several oceans and seas. In this unit, we will discuss the theory and evidences
of continental drift hypothesis. We will also describe mechanisms or forces
responsible for continents to drift and criticism of the continental drift hypothesis.

Expected Learning
Outcomes________________________
After reading this unit, you should be able to:
 describe the theory of continental drift;
 discuss the mechanism behind continents to drift;
 explain the evidences supporting continental drift hypothesis; and
 write about criticism of continental drift hypothesis.

11.2 CONTINENTAL DRIFT HYPOTHESIS

A century ago, two types of thoughts were prevailing in geotectonics one group
said all continents and oceans are stable since their origin and horizontally they
moved very little. This group was dominant and were called as ‘fixist’. The
other group was in favour of large-scale horizontal movement of continents and
were known as ‘mobilists’. The mobilists’ group asserts that Earth is a unique
planet and a system of forces generated stress over millions of years in the
geological past, separated single continent into several continents and
displaced them into different positions (Krebs, 2007). In fact, continental drift
hypothesis took long time to evolve and later, contributed a lot for developing
the concept of sea-floor spreading, palaeomagnetism and theory of plate
tectonics. Lets us first discuss early contributions to continental drift.
11.2.1 Early Idea about Continental Drift
The basic concept that continents are not fixed and might have drifted is very
old. Many geographers and philosophers had noticed the drift of continents in
the 16th century by observing an easy jig-saw-like fit among the coast lines of
Africa and South America (Fig. 11.1). In 1596, Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish
cartographer, suggested that the Old Worlds (comprising Africa, Asia and
Europe) separated from the New Worlds (consisting of North America, South
America and Oceania) by floods and earthquakes. Later, in 1620, Francis
Bacon, an English scientist, proposed that Africa and South America were once
joined together based on the similarities of their coast lines. Subsequently, a
German geographer, Bernhardus Varenius in 1650, suggested that America
and Europe were once a single continent. In the 19th century, Eduard Suess, an
Austrian geologist, studied the link between Europe and Africa and envisioned
that the Alps Mountains of Europe were once under the ocean and today’s
Mediterranean Sea represents its relict of a large sea. Importantly, Eduard
Suess in 1893 reported the presence of plant fossils (Glossopteris) and glacial
deposits of Late Palaeozoic (Carboniferous to Permian) age from South
America, Africa, Australia and India. Based on the occurrences of plant fossils
and glacial deposits in these landmasses, he suggested that South America,
Africa, Australia and India were connected together as a single supercontinent
during the Late Palaeozoic Era. He named this supercontinent as
Gondwanaland after the Gond tribe of central India. In Geology of India, the
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term Gondwana is also used to represent the Upper Palaeozoic to Lower
Mesozoic coal-yielding rocks of peninsular India, which collectively known as
Gondwana Supergroup. In 1893, he also coined the terms Tethys and
Panthalassa. The work of Eduard Suess laid a sound foundation to the
continental drift hypothesis for further development. Of late, in 1910, Frank
Taylor, an American geologist envisioned that the continents were not
stationary, but they moved laterally in the geological past.

Fig. 11.1: Map showing famous jig-saw-like fit of South America and Africa.

11.2.2 Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis

Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930) was a German meteorologist, climatologist
and geophysicist is credited for formally developing continental drift hypothesis.
He gathered data from the previous studies carried on the drift of continents
and also took inferences from geology, palaeontology, palaeoclimatology,
zoogeography and geophysics to formally proposed continental drift hypothesis
in 1912. His hypothesis was an innovative scientific concept that developed in
the years 1908-1912 and popularly known as Wegener's Continental Drift
Hypothesis. He published this hypothesis in his book ‘Die Entstenung der
Kontinente und Ozeane (The origin of continent and ocean) of which four
editions appeared during 1915 to 1928.
The Wegener's continental drift hypothesis states that the existing continents of
the Earth were once joined together at one point of time and forming a
supercontinent. After that, they broke-up into various continents, displaced and
finally, reached their present location. Wegener recognised that by the Late
Palaeozoic Era, all continents were assemblage into a supercontinent and
named it as Pangaea (meaning “all lands” in Greek) and the Pangaea was
surrounded by a large ocean, named as “Panthalassa” (meaning “all oceans”).
Further, he suggested that the Pangaea separated, first into two smaller
supercontinents such as Laurasia and Gondwanaland during the Jurassic
period and then, by the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents have
started to moved to their current positions as we see today (Fig. 11.2). The
northern part of the Pangaea is known as Laurasia (a combination of

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Laurentia, a region of Canada and Asia) consisting of today’s northern
continents such as Europe, North America, and Asia excluding India. The
southern part of the Pangaea is termed as Gondwanaland and composed of
South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, India and Madagascar. These two
supercontinents were separated by a wedge-shaped sea known as the “Tethys
Sea” (Fig. 11.2b). It is important to note that Wegener's continental drift
hypothesis starts from Late Palaeozoic Era and he did not describe the drift of
continents before it. However, it does not mean that continents would have not
been drifted prior to Late Palaeozoic Era.

Fig. 11.2: Maps showing drift of continents from Pangaea to present: a)

Supercontinent Pangaea; b) Pangaea began to break-up into Laurasia
and Gondwana about 200 million years ago; and c) Eventually
fragmenting into the continents as we know them today.

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11.3 MECHANISM OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT

In nutshell, continental drift hypothesis proposed that the continents were
carved out from Pangaea and moved several thousand kilometers from their
original locations. This raises two inquiries firstly, why continents were broken in
Permian period, why not after or before the Permian and secondly, was the
force for breaking the Pangaea that requires lot of energy and for drifting the
continents on ocean-floor or simply mechanism for breaking and drifting of
continents. Prior to Wegner, mechanisms like floods, earthquakes, etc. were
proposed. These were out rightly rejected during the early 20th century. Now, let
us acquaint ourselves with different ideas put forth by various people about the
forces responsible for drifting of the continents.
Wegener’s concept: To explain mechanism of drift, Wegner adopted three
layers model of the Earth’s interior of Eduard Suess, which was given by
him in 1893. These three layers are: NiFe (innermost layer composed of
nickel and ferrous (iron) described the core), SiMa (intermediate layer
comprised silica and magnesium i.e. mantle) and SiAl (outer layer
consisting of silica and aluminum referred to as crust). Wegener argued that
the continental crust is restricted to SiAl consisting of elements of the lesser
density and the oceanic crust is made up of SiMa consisting of elements of
relatively heavier density. Thus, continents made up of lighter material (i.e.
SiAl) were floating on without any friction on the denser Wegner not only
proposed continental drift but polar wandering also. Polar wandering means
movement of Earth’s poles this movement is different from the movement or
drift of continents. Decoupling between crust and mantle is leading to polar
wandering in that he visualised equator ward movement of crust which is
controlled by the rotation of the Earth. He identified three types of forces
which are: force of gravity as Earth has large diameter at equator than
poles, centrifugal force caused by rotation of Earth or pole-fleeing force as
this increase from pole to equator and buoyancy i.e. continents floating over
the ocean-floor.
Wegner adopted Taylor and Snider models for movement or drift of
continents. They had proposed that movement of continents over ocean-
floor due to the tidal forces which are generated by attraction mainly
between the Earth and Moon. Sun influence is very less. Wegner proposed
westward movement of continents due to tidal current as Earth rotates from
west to east and tidal force acts east to west. This is main force. This force
acts for millions of years, then Pangaea broke and continents drifted in
different directions. Wegener said that the tidal force was maximum when
the moon was closest to the Earth and it forcefully pulled the blocks of
continental curst and displaced them towards the west.
These forces are hopelessly weak. As such then geologists sceptically
accepted decoupling of crust and mantle but their simple calculation
rejected tidal energy governed mechanism of continental drift.
Holmes’s Convection Current concept: Wegener’s continental drift
hypothesis attracted many scientists but they were not convinced with tidal
force mechanism to drift the continents. In 1928, Arthur Holmes, an English
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geologist, invoked the mechanism of thermal convection in the mantle as
the driving force of continental drift. According to Holmes, convection
currents were generated due to radioactive heating in the interior of the
Earth. The concept could not gain importance because the radioactive
heating is too low to cause continents to drift or move. Though, both
Wegener and Holmes’ ideas of forces responsible for drifting continents are
rejected, but they laid the foundation from which modern ideas such as sea-
floor spreading, palaeomagnetism and theory of plate tectonics developed.
Theory of Plate Tectonics: Although, Wegener’s hypothesis of continental
drift had many evidences in its support, but it could not explain properly the
forces responsible for the drifting of the continents. The mechanism of
continental drift is rightly explained by the theory of plate tectonics. Plate
tectonics theory considers the role of convection currents in the drifting of
the continents, but not in the same way as Holmes had suggested. This
theory assumes that the globe is made up of rigid masses called ‘plates’
consisting of lithosphere which floats and moves along the convection
currents over the asthenosphere. The main difference between the
continental drift theory and the plate tectonics is that the former postulates
the movement within the lithosphere itself, i.e. between continents and
oceans while the later talks of the total movement of the lithosphere over
the asthenosphere. A tectonic plate comprises the total lithosphere.
The convection currents may causes three types of plate movements such
as convergent, divergent and transform fault (Fig. 11.3). The divergent
movement occurs when two plates move away from each other and
convergent movement occurs when two plates move towards each other.
In case of transform fault movement, two plates neither move away nor
towards each other, but they slide past each other.
The theory of plate tectonics says that continents drift away from the divergent
plate margins, which are usually located at the Mid-Oceanic Ridges. The Mid-
Oceanic Ridges commonly situated at places where two convection current
cycles move upwards and diverge when they reach up to asthenosphere (Fig.
11.3a). As a result, the lithospheric plates floating above these currents also
diverge and make the continental portion of the lithospheric plate to drift away.
New magma generated from magma chamber occurring at depth rises up to fill
the gap developed by divergent motion of the plate at Mid-Oceanic Ridges.
Thus, new lava is added up in the ocean floor to form new oceanic crust in both
margins of the diverging plates. The newly formed oceanic crust is added to
spread the ocean floor. This process occurs in such a way that the youngest
crust is always found along the Mid-Oceanic Ridges and oldest ocean floor lies
on the flanks of the ocean towards the continent (Fig 11.4). The newly formed
oceanic crust forces to move the entire plate including the continental part
associated with the plate, symmetrically away from the ocean spreading centre,
that is, Mid-Oceanic Ridge. As a result, continents too drift away from the Mid-
Oceanic Ridges and thus, provide best mechanism of continental drift. The
Atlantic Ocean presents a typical example of such continental drift as shown in
Fig. 11.4.

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Fig. 11.3: Types of plate boundaries: a) divergent; b) convergent; and c)

transform fault. Arrows indicate movement direction. (Source: redrawn
after http://geologylearn.blogspot.com/2016/02/what-do-we-mean-by-plate-
tectonics.html)

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Fig. 11.4: Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:

Atlantic_bathymetry.jpg and https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/
2minrelief.html)

Before proceeding further, let us have short break to check your progress.

SAQ 1
a) What are Pangaea, Gondwanaland and Laurasia?
b) Define Tethys Sea and Panthalassa.
c) List three types of plate movements.
d) What are Mid-Ocean Ridges?

11.4 EVIDENCES OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT

The supporters of continental drift gathered evidences in favour of the
hypothesis by working in field, library and laboratory. These evidences can be
divided into two categories:
11.4.1 Geological Evidences
Very meticulously geological evidences from most of the branches were
collected from field, study of geological literature and laboratories. Let us
discuss the geological evidences favouring the continental drift hypothesis.
Geometric Fit of Continents: By looking at the physical shape of present
continental coastlines, Wegener noted that they can easily be fitted together

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like a jig-saw fit, and forms a supercontinent (Fig. 11.5). This shows that the
continents may have been once together and later on, fragmented and drifted
apart. Wegner noticed the remarkable similarity between the coast lines on
opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and suggested that these two coast lines
can be fitted when brought together (Fig. 11.5). This indicates that the
continents were once fixed together and drifted apart over time.

Fig. 11.5: Jig-saw fit of the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean. Red colour shows
the area where overlaps and gaps observed during fitting of continents.
(Source: http://www.age-of the-sage.org/plate tectonics/continental_drift.
html)

In fitting the boundary of continents, Wegner and others have observed in few
small cases continents were over-riding each other and at many places there
were space between two continents; these were called overlap and gap,
respectively.
Lithological evidences: Lithologically, the coast lines of the landmass on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean are found to be identical in terms of lithology (i.e.
rock-type) and stratigraphy. For example, Wegner found the evidence of 2.2
Giga years old igneous rocks in Brazil that closely resembled similarly aged
rocks in Africa. Similar evidences can be found in mountain belts that terminate
at one coast line and re-appear on land masses across the ocean.

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Structural evidences: Alexander Logie du Toit, a South African geologist, was
a great supporter of continental drift hypothesis. In 1923, he studied the rocks
of the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South Africa and found
the convincing similarities in the structural features of both these coasts.
Further, based on his observations, he suggested that Africa and America
might have close to each other at some point of geological time. It is also found
that the fold belt of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern North America is
closely related with the fold belt of the Caledonian Mountains of the northern
Europe, which had been provided a line of evidence in favour of continental drift
(Kearey and others, 2012).
Igneous magmatic provinces: A typical pattern is noted in the occurrences of
Precambrian anorthositic igneous rocks from Africa, Madagascar and India and
the dolerite igneous rocks of Mesozoic age from Antarctica, South Africa and
Tasmania (Fig. 11.6), which suggesting that continents were once joined
together (Kearey and others, 2012).

Fig. 11.6: Map of Gondwana continents showing correlation of Precambrian

anorthosites, Mesozoic dolerites and Permo-Carboniferous glacial
deposits. (Source: modified after Kearey and others, 2012)

Stratigraphic successions: The distinctive stratigraphic successions of Upper

Palaeozoic (Carboniferous-Permian) age yielding key horizons (tillite and coal)
and fossil flora have been widely distributed in South America, Africa,
Antarctica, Australia and India. These sedimentary successions are thick and
well-preserved those are stratigraphically, well correlated with each other, thus,
pointing out to assembly of continents.
Palaeoclimatic evidences: Wegener strongly felt that palaeoclimatic (i.e.
climate of the past) data would support the idea of mobile continents. The
evidences of glaciations of Permo-Carboniferous times are found equally on the
South America, southern Africa, Madagascar, Falkland, peninsular India,
Australia and Antarctica, suggesting they were once locked up landmasses,
probably during Permo-Carboniferous (Fig. 11.6).
Sea-floor spreading: Expansion in the floor area of the ocean is called sea-
floor spreading. The studies of sea-floor spreading phenomenon have
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confirmed that the continents were once united as a supercontinent Pangaea,
which later got fragmented and drifted. The sea-floor between these drifted
continental blocks has spread during last 200 million years.
Palaeomagnetic evidences: Palaeomagnetic evidences are based on study of
the Earth’s magnetic field through the geological time. Let us learn about it by
citing an example. We know that a typical ocean also has an underwater range
of mountains, which is generally known as Mid Oceanic Ridge (Srivastava,
2019). You can notice the presence of Mid Oceanic Ridge in the ocean floor
(Fig. 11.4). The Mid Oceanic Ridge has been active in geological past and is
still active. It pours out lava (called basalt-rock rich in iron and magnesium
minerals) under the sea. The magnetic mineral in newly formed lava would
preserve magnetic record of Earth’s polarity of that time, when it was being
solidified from magma. The crystallisation of magnetic minerals like magnetite
(Fe3O4) is affected by magnetic forces.
If the lava contains such minerals then the magnetic records of that particular
time, such as north and south magnetic poles and magnetic force lines will be
preserved in such magnetic minerals. This will remain preserved until it gets
demagnetised by temperatures beyond certain critical limit called Curie
temperature. Palaeomagnetic records are studied with the help of an
instrument called magnetometer. If a ship with a magnetometer moves over
the ocean, many strips of normal and reversed polarity are observed in the
oceanic floors. The records of these strips of normal and reversed polarity are
found to be symmetrical as mirror image along the Mid Oceanic Ridge, Two
Englishmen- Drummond H. Matthews and Frederick J. Vine in 1963 proposed
that the new oceanic crust acted like a magnetic tape recorder in so far as
magnetic anomaly strips parallel to the ridge. These strips of basalt had been
magnetized alternately in normal and reversed order, reflecting the changes in
polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field.
More and more such palaeomagnetic studies on the Earth have suggested that
the magnetic north and south poles have wandered from place to place and
even reversed their positions in its history. It has been observed that the
magnetic pole positions of the present globe were different during the geologic
past and by joining these poles, a curve is obtained, which is known as polar
wandering curve. The records of the polar wandering and polar reversals
when analysed over different continents, suggested that the landmasses were
once together and later drifted to present positions.
11.4.2 Palaeontological evidences
The remains of ancient animals and plants known as fossils, present in the
layers of sedimentary rock sequences of various continent provide solid
evidences in favour of continental drift. It is noted that remains of extinct
animals such as Mesosaurus, Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus and extinct
plants like Glossopteris are recovered from the Upper Palaeozoic to Lower
Triassic rocks of South America, South Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India. It
may be noted that Mesosaurus, Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus were reptiles
lived on land and in freshwater and were not capable to cross oceans. And, the
same was the case with the land plants, Glossopteris. Thus, their presence in
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widely geographical separated land masses such as South America, South
Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia suggested that these land masses must
have been connected each other at one point of geological time scale
(Fig.11.7).

Fig. 11.7: Late Palaeozoic palaeogeographic reconstruction of Gondwanan

landmasses based on fossils of animals (Cynognathus, Mesosaurus
and Lystrosaurus) and plants (Glossopteris). Note that Cynognathus
and Lystrosaurus are land reptiles. Fossils of Cynognathus are known
from Early Triassic of South America and Africa. Fossils of
Lystrosaurus are known from Early Triassic of Africa, India and
Antarctica. Mesosaurus is small fresh water reptile and its fossils are
known from Early Permian of South America and Africa. Glossopteris is
a land plant and its fossils are known from Carboniferous and Permian
of South America, Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia. (Source:
simplified after Benton and Harper, 2009)

11.5 Criticism of Continental Drift

It is important to note that Wegener’s hypothesis was based on data which
were drawn from several disciplines, but it had certain limitations. A weakness
in Wegener’s hypothesis was that it could not satisfactorily answer the most
fundamental question raised by his critics, i.e. what kind of forces could be
strong enough to move such large masses of solid rock over such great
distances? Undaunted by rejection, Wegener devoted the rest of his life in
pursuing additional evidences to defend his theory. He froze to death in 1930
during an expedition crossing the Greenland ice cap, but the controversy he
spawned raged on (Srivastava, 2019).
There were two groups of critics for continental drift hypothesis. The First
Group includes those critics who were always interested to find errors and
shortcomings in Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis. The Second Group
consists of those critics who were interested to find real causes behind drift of
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continents while retaining the original concept of continental drift hypothesis as
such. Numerous scientists, especially the geologists of America, largely
criticised Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis. Main points of disagreement
with Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis are listed below:
Critics disagreed to the thought of Wegener that continents were floating
over the denser oceanic crust. They had observed that sliding of continents
through oceanic crust would deform them and there was lack of existence of
a force strong enough to make continents move over oceanic crust. In fact,
oceanic crust is so strong and would not allow the continents to move over
it.
Critics also objected that the lighter and soft material of continental crust
would not be able to penetrate under the denser oceanic crust.
The forces suggested by Wegener were not strong enough to drift
continents so apart.
Wegener believed that Pangaea did not split up until the end of Palaeozoic.
However, geologists found it impossible to accept that continental drift
would have been occurred in such a short time period (Meinhold and
Sengor, 2019). Further, Wegener did not describe the timing and
sequencing of the separation and movements of continents through
geological time scale. He also not shown the position of the continents
before Late Palaeozoic Era. As a consequence, critics had raised various
questions. Among them, few are (i) Why Pangaea did not break before Late
Palaeozoic Era? What were the forces that kept Pangaea intact during the
Mesozoic Era?
Some critics found that a complete jig-saw fit between both coasts of the
Atlantic Ocean cannot be possible because some portions of the cost lines
get distorted. Hence, the evidence of jig-saw fit is not valid evidence.
Last, but not least, since Wegener was a non-geologist by profession and
most of supporting evidences came from the Southern Hemisphere. In fact,
most of renowned geologists at that time were from Northern Hemisphere
and they rarely visited to the Southern Hemisphere in an age when travel
was mainly done by ship. Therefore, they were not convinced by the strong
palaeontological evidence. They suggested that land bridges might have
been existed between South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India
and thus, allowing animals and plants to disperse from one place to
another.
It may be noted that critics rejected many points of Wegener’s continental drift
hypothesis. But they found merit in the central concept of the drift, which states
that continents displaced horizontally. Subsequent development after World
War II in geological field led to emergence of many new concepts such as
computerised matching of boundary, palaeomagnetism, geomagnetic reversal,
sea-floor spreading, Benioff zone and transform fault when woven together
gave rise to modified version of continental drift which is still prevailing. The
premature death of Wegener, in geological expedition in Arctic region, 1930
made him not to see that his work finally accepted by the scientific community.
Let us check your progress.

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SAQ 2
a) Write types of magnetic polarity.
b) Name the land masses where paleontological evidences obtained.
c) What was the main weakness of Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis?
d) Precambrian aged anorthositic igneous rocks occur in ................ .

11.6 ACTIVITY
Given below is the map of Pangaea (Fig.11.8).

Fig. 11.8: Map showing the supercontinent Pangaea. (Source: simplified after Smith,
1992).

Perform the followings:

a) Identify and label the following: Gondwana, Laurasia, Panthalassa, Tethys
Sea, North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Antarctica,
Australia and India.
b) Note the geographic location of India, compare it with its today’s location
and write in which direction India was moved after its split from Pangaea.

11.7 SUMMARY
Let us summarise what you have read in this unit:
The continental drift hypothesis asserts that Earth is a very old planet that
has one continent and one ocean since beginning. A system of gradually
opposing forces generated stress over millions of years during the
geological past and broke the single continent into several smaller
continents and drifted them into different directions.
The basic concept that continents are not fixed and might have drifted is
very old as first observation was made in the 16th century by Ortelius.

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Eduard Suess in 1893 reported the presence of plant fossils (Glossopteris)
and glacial deposits of Late Palaeozoic (Carboniferous to Permian) age
from South America, Africa, Australia and India.
The terms Gondwanaland, Tethys and Panthalassa were also coined by
Eduard Suess in 1893.
Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930) was a German meteorologist,
climatologist and geophysicist is credited for formally developing continental
drift hypothesis in 1912.
The Wegener's continental drift hypothesis states that the existing
continents of the Earth were once joined together at one point of time and
forming a supercontinent.
Wegener recognised that by the Late Palaeozoic Era, all continents were
existed in a supercontinent known as Pangaea, which was surrounded by
an ocean called Panthalassa.
Pangaea separated into two smaller supercontinents such as Laurasia and
Gondwanaland by a wedge-shaped sea known as the Tethys Sea.
The forces originated by gravitational differential and buoyancy of the Earth
as well as tidal attraction of the sun and the moon were the main causes of
continental drift.
Arthur Holmes in 1928 invoked the mechanism of thermal convection in the
mantle as the driving force of continental drift.
Geometric fit of coast lines on both sides of the Atlantic oceans, similarities
in lithology, structure, igneous magmatic provinces, stratigraphic
successions, palaeoclimatic data, and fossils presence between different
continents were cited as evidences for supporting the continental drift
hypothesis.
A weakness in Wegener’s hypothesis was that it could not satisfactorily
answer the fundamental question raised by his critics, i.e. what kind of
forces could be strong enough to move such large masses of solid rock
over such great distances?
Critics found that a complete jig-saw fit between both coasts of the Atlantic
Ocean cannot be possible because some portions of the cost lines get
distorted

11.8 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. What is continental drift hypothesis? Give an account of early idea about
continental drift.
2. Discuss Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis.
3. What are various mechanisms put forth for explaining drift of the continents.
4. Describe evidences in favour of continental drift theory.
5. Give an account of criticism of continental drift hypothesis.

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11.9 REFERENCES
Kearey, P., Klepeis, K.A. and Vine, F.J. (2009) Global Tectonics, Wiley
India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.
Krebs, R.E. (2007) The Basics of Earth Science, Atlantic Publishers and
Distributors pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.
Meinhold, G. and Sengor, A.M.C. (2019) A historical account of how
continental drift and plate tectonics provided the framework for our current
understanding of paleogeography, Geological Magazine 156(2): 182-207.
Smith, A.G. (1992) Plate tectonics and continental drift, pp. 187-203, In:
Brown, G.C., Hawkesworth, C.J. and Wilson, R.C.L., (eds.), Understanding
the Earth, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Srivastava, V. (2019) Theories of Mountain Building, pp. 25-41, BGYCT-131
Physical and Structural Geology, Block 4 Mountain Building and Plate
Tectonics, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

11.10 FURTHER/SUGGESTED READINGS

Le Grand, H. E. (1994) Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Singh, S. (2012) Physical Geography, Prayag Pustak Bhawan, India.

11.11 ANSWERS
Self Assessment Question 1
a) Pangaea: Wegener recognised that by the Late Paleozoic era, all continents
were assemblage into a supercontinent and named it as Pangaea.
Gondwanaland: It is southern part of the Pangaea and composed of South
America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India.
Laurasia: It is northern part of the Pangaea consisting of today’s northern
continents such as Europe, North America, and Asia excluding India.
b) Tethys Sea: It was a wedge-shaped sea separating Gondwanaland from
Laurasia.
Panthalassa: It was large ocean encircling the entire Pangaea.
c) The three types of plate movements are convergent, divergent and
transform fault.
d) Mid-Ocean Ridges are the places where two convection current cycles
move upwards and diverge the oceanic plates in opposite directions when
they reach up to asthenosphere. They represent the place where new
oceanic crust is formed by the molten material.
Self Assessment Question 2
a) Normal and reversal are two types of magnetic polarity.
b) The palaeontological evidences comprising animals (Mesosaurus,
Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus) and extinct plants (Glossopteris) are

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recovered from the Upper Palaeozoic to Lower Triassic rocks of South
America, South Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India.
c) The main weakness in Wegener’s hypothesis was that it could not
satisfactorily answer the most fundamental question raised by his critics, i.e.
what kind of forces could be strong enough to move such large masses of
solid rock over such great distances?
d) Precambrian anorthositic igneous rocks occur in Africa, Madagascar and
India.
Terminal Questions
1. Please refer to section 11.2 and 11.2.1.
2. Please refer to section 11.2.2.
3. Please refer to section 11.3.
4. Please refer to section 11.4.
5. Please refer to section 11.5.

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