ARELLANO UNIVERSITY - MALABON

Elisa Esguerra Campus

EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

Name: __________________________________ Date: ___________

Strand & Section: ________________________ Score: __________

Topic: EVIDENCES OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT AND DEFORMATION OF THE CRUST

(PLATE TECTONICS)

Concept note no. 12: EVIDENCE OF CONTINENTAL DRIFTS AND PLATE

TECTONICS

Besides the way the continents fit together, Wegener and his supporters collected a
great deal of evidence for the continental drift hypothesis.
1. Identical Rocks
Most of the rock has same type and age, are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wegener said the rocks had formed side-by-side and that the land had since moved
apart.
2. Mountain Ranges
The same rock types, structures, and ages are now on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean. The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, are
just like mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway.
Wegener concluded that they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as
the continents drifted.

3. Ancient Fossils
 The same species of extinct plants and animals
are found in rocks of the same age but are on
continents that are now widely separated.
 Wegener proposed that the organisms had lived
side by side, but that the lands had moved apart
after they were dead and fossilized.
 He suggested that the organisms would not have
been able to travel across the oceans.
1. Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris were too
heavy to be carried so far by wind.
2. Mesosaurus was a swimming reptile but could
only swim in fresh water.
3. Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were land
reptiles and were unable to swim.
 4. Grooves and Rock deposits
 Ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very close to the equator.
This would indicate that the glaciers either formed in the middle of the ocean and/or
covered most of the Earth.
 Today glaciers only form on land and nearer the poles. Wegener thought that the
glaciers were centered over the southern land mass close to the South Pole and the
continents moved to their present positions later on.
5. Ancient Climate: Coral Reefs and Coal Forming
 Found in tropical and subtropical environments, but ancient coal seams and coral
reefs are found in locations where it is much too cold today.
 Wegener suggested that these creatures were alive in warm climate zones and that
the fossils and coal later had drifted to new locations on the continents.
6. Magnetic Polarity Evidence
Although Wegener’s evidence was sound, most geologists at the time rejected his
hypothesis of continental drift. Scientists argued that there was no way to explain how
solid continents could plow through solid oceanic crust.
Magnetic Polarity on the Same 1. The continents remained fixed, and the
Continent with Rocks of Different Ages north magnetic pole moved.
 Older rock that are of different ages 2. The north magnetic pole stood still, and
do not point to the same locations or the continents moved.
to the current magnetic north pole. 3. Both the continents and the north pole
moved.
Magnetic Polarity on Different 1. 400-million-year-old magnetite in
Continents with Rocks of the Same Europe pointed to a different north
Age magnetic pole than the same-aged
magnetite in North America.
Geologists noted that for rocks of the 2. 250 million years ago, the north poles
same age but on different continents, the were also different for the two continents.
little magnets pointed to different
magnetic north poles.

On the left: The apparent

north pole for Europe and
North America if the
continents were always in
their current locations. The
two paths merge into one if
the continents are allowed
to drift.

PLATE TECTONICS
The earth’s crust is divided into major plates which are moved in various directions. This
plate motion causes them to collide, pull apart, or scrape against each other. Each type
of interaction causes a characteristic set of earth structures or “tectonic” features. The
word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of the crust as a consequence of plate
interaction. Plates move 1-10 centimeters per year.
Plates of lithosphere are moved around by the underlying hot mantle convection cells.
 World Plates
Plate Boundaries

The four (3) types of Plate Tectonics

Divergent Plate Boundary – Volcanic eruptions and shallow earthquakes are common
where plates rip apart.
 Oceanic Divergent Boundary
 Continental Divergent Boundary

Convergent Plate Boundary - Where plates crash together, one dives (“subducts”)
beneath the other, causing volcanoes to erupt on the overriding plate and earthquakes
at a variety of depths. The large white star represents the zone where plates lock
together in centuries then suddenly let go, causing the largest earthquakes.
 Continent-Continent Convergent
Plate Boundary
 Continent-Oceanic Convergent Plate
Boundary
 Oceanic-Oceanic Convergent Plate
Boundary
Transform Plate Boundary – Shallow earthquakes
and little volcanism occur where one plate slides
laterally past another.
Hotspot – in places like Hawaii and Yellow Stone, a
plate rides over a rising plume of hot mantle, causing
earthquakes and a chain of volcanoes.
The Crust
 The earth’s crust is made of:
 Continental crust and Oceanic Crust
Continental Crust
 It is the layer of granitic, sedimentary, and
metamorphic rocks, which form the continents
and the areas of shallow seabed close to their
shores (Continental shelves), the thickness of
the continental crust is about 10-70km. it is
buoyant (less dense than oceanic crust), its rocks hold four billion years of earth
history. This type of crust is young – none older than 170 million years – and is
only about 8kilometer thick.
Oceanic Crust
 It is the denser crustal layer of earth that makes up portion of tectonic plates in
deep oceans. The oceanic crust sits on the upper portion of the mantle and is
influenced by tectonic forces and convection currents within the mantle. These
forces contribute to the creation of new oceanic crust.
ASSESSMENT: