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Continental drift

Continental drift is the hypothesis, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time.[1] The hypothesis of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.[2]

This article is about the development of the continental drift hypothesis before 1958. For the contemporary theory, see Plate tectonics.

The speculation that continents might have "drifted" was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. A pioneer of the modern view of mobilism was the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer.[3][4] The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in his 1915 publication, "The Origin of Continents and Oceans".[5] However, at that time the hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. In 1931, the English geologist Arthur Holmes proposed mantle convection for that mechanism.

First, it had been shown that floating masses on a rotating would collect at the equator, and stay there. This would explain one, but only one, mountain building episode between any pair of continents; it failed to account for earlier orogenic episodes.

geoid

Second, masses floating freely in a fluid substratum, like icebergs in the ocean, should be in equilibrium (in which the forces of gravity and buoyancy are in balance). But gravitational measurements showed that many areas are not in isostatic equilibrium.

isostatic

Third, there was the problem of why some parts of the Earth's surface (crust) should have solidified while other parts were still fluid. Various attempts to explain this foundered on other difficulties.

 – The sequence of major geological events in Earth's past

Geological history of Earth

Israel C. White

Frankel, Henry R. (2012). The Continental Drift Controversy. Vol. I: Wegener and the Early Debate. Cambridge.

Le Grand, Homer Eugene (1988). . Cambridge University. ISBN 978-0-521-31105-2.

Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories

(1999). The Rejection of Continental Drift. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511732-5. (pb: 0-19-511733-6)

Oreskes, Naomi

Oreskes, Naomi (2002). (PDF). In Munn, Ted; MacCracken, Michael C.; Perry, John S. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change. Vol. 1. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 321–325. ISBN 978-0-471-97796-4. OCLC 633880622. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2012.

"Continental Drift"

Ortelius, Abraham (1596) [1570]. Thesaurus Geographicus (in Latin) (3 ed.). Antwerp: Plantin.  214324616. (First edition published 1570, 1587 edition online)

OCLC

(1982). "Classical theories of orogenesis". In Miyashiro, Akiho; Aki, Keiiti; Şengör, Celâl (eds.). Orogeny. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-103769.

Şengör, Celâl

Snider-Pellegrini, Antonio (1858). . Paris: Frank and Dentu..

La Création et ses mystères dévoilés

Benjamin Franklin (1782) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1834) noted Continental Drift

A brief introduction to Plate Tectonics, based on the work of Alfred Wegener

Animation of continental drift for last 1 billion years

Maps of continental drift, from the Precambrian to the future

3D visualization of what did Earth look like from  750 million years ago to present (at present location of your choice)