Research into the theory of plate tectonics first began around 1920. This research was spearheaded by Alfred Wegner, a German meteorologist and geophysicist. His work presented the theory that today’s continents once were joined as one to form a huge supercontinent commonly referred to as Pangaea today. Wegner’s theory stated that the super continent broke up and the pieces (today’s continents) drifted over time into their current positions, he called this “Continental Drift”. Wegener's theory also provided an alternate explanation for the formation of mountains (orogenesis).
Plate tectonics (also known as the conveyor belt principle) is a scientific theory that describes the large-scale motions of the Earth’s lithosphere, building on concepts from the theory of continental drift (movement of the Earth’s continents relative to each other). The lithosphere is broken up into 7 main tectonic plates which move from 0-100mm annually. It is thought that the continents once formed a single land mass called Pangea that drifted apart, this is the start of the main idea of plate tectonics. In 1596, Abraham Ortelius first made the speculation that continents might have ‘drifted’ but the concept was developed further by Alfred Wegener in 1912. Presently, Earth Scientists agree on the observation and assumption that the plates have moved with respect to one another, but they still debate as to how and when.
The underlying ideas that Wilson built his theory on were proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 with his Theory of Continental Drift. Tuzo Wilson was able to provide a way to explain how the continents were able to move apart that Wegener could not explain when he had proposed his idea. Scientists had believed that based on the evidence Wegener had provided it did appear that all of the present day continents had somehow been connected together. The way that the coasts of Africa and South America appear to fit together nicely in addition to fossil evidence of large tortoises and other animals being found near the edges of the continents. Alfred could not explain how the huge masses of land could have moved so far.
It wasn’t until Alfred Wegener (1912) presented his theory of continental drift that a reasonable explanation was available. As this theory gained acceptance, although slowly at first, through the 20th century geologists were able to gather evidence to produce maps showing the arrangement of the Earth’s major continents at different periods of its history. These paleo-maps are of great importance for those who study evolution, as the presence and break-up of so called ‘super-continents’ in the past offered an explanation to the disjointed distributions of many terrestrial animals, both extant and fossils. Scientists pre-Wegener postulated that sister clades somehow travelled across large oceans, via land-bridges that are geologically improbable, to explain their presence in both Africa and S. America. What was now a possibility is that these animals were simply on the opposite sides of one continent as it split down the middle to form the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1915, Alfred Wegener posed the theory of continental drift. Wegener believed that at one point the Earth was bonded together as one huge continent. He believed that they had all drifted apart over the years. Wegener was a German geologist and meteorologist. He named the supposed single land mass on Earth “Pangaea”, meaning All-earth.
Plate tectonics was first suggested as a theory by the geologist Alfred Wegener in 1915 when he proposed the concept of continental drift. Back in the geological past, what is now South America, Africa, Australasia and Antarctica fitted together into a supercontinent known as Gondwanaland; with North America, Europe and Asia fitting into another supercontinent known as Laurasia. (OCR AS/A2 Geology, Mugglestone et al, 2008). These were once believed to be joined to form one major central global landmass known as Pangaea (Introducing Geology, Graham Park). But now due to the global distribution of these major plates it has been proposed by Wegener and his successors that convection currents in the mantle are the cause of the movement of plates.
The Era is made up of six Geologic periods, the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and the Permian. Much of the plants and animals that exististed and evolved was due to the climate and location of the continents. At the beginning of the Paleozoic period, the continents were far apart, but by the end they were close together and on the way in forming the supercontinent called Pangaea. The land was moving by Plate Tectonics. Four hundred and thirty million years ago there was glaciation; this caused an ice sheet to cover what is now North Africa.
The reason for the movement is convection currents originating in the core caused by radioactive decay. Knowing the theory of plate tectonics is a useful tool in understanding the distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes as they correlate very closely. If we map out the location of major earth quakes, location of active volcanoes and a map of general plat tectonic, the 3 would overlap. This gives us a general idea of locations and correlations. Each boundary between 2 plates have the capability of being a different type of boundary.
During the period of 1500 B.C. to 600 B.C. up to 1492 A.D. Paleoanthropologists studied the evolution and prehistory of humans has concluded that the origins of humanity lie in savannah regions of Africa. All people today are very likely descendants of beings who lived in Africa millions years ago. West Africans looked to the Americas as a source of trade, commerce, a place to settle and a place to build new civilizations.
Aristotle was correct about his first argument, but his second one was challenged by a scientist by the name of Ptolemy. Ptolemy elaborated onto Aristotle’s idea of the earth being the in the “center” of the universe second century AD. Next, Hawking discusses the accomplishments of Nicholas Copernicus, a polish priest who contributed to science around 1514. Copernicus’ theory (Copernican theory), stated that the sun was stationary and at the center while the earth and other planets orbited the sun. Nearly a century passed until Copernican