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Explore the theory of Continental Drift: have the continents always been in the same place? And are they stationary now?Key facts
- 250 million years ago, most of the world's land mass was joined together.
- Alfred Wegener first published the idea that landmasses were slowly moving apart and there once existed a "supercontinent."
- Continents are part of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust, and they move on average 2cm each year.
- Wegener observed that South America and Africa seemed to fit together like a jigsaw, and matching fossils have been found on both continents.
Transcript
250 million years ago, you could travel from South America to Africa in a single step.
At this time, most of the world's land mass was joined together, forming a supercontinent – Pangaea.
Pangaea derived from the Greek words:
'Pan' meaning 'all'
'Gaea' meaning 'Earth'
The idea that there'd once been a supercontinent was first …
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