Super Continent

1. What is a Theory?
What is Pangaea?
What is Continental Drift?

3. =
Alfred Wegener: German scientist

4. Geologists study
rocks and fossils.
Wegener was a geologist.

5. ?
1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Alfred Wegener

6. land
1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
idea
Alfred Wegener
movement

7. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Wegener studied fossils from South American and Africa. He saw some fossils were the same.

8. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Wegener studied fossils from South American and Africa. He saw some fossils were the same.

9. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Wegener studied fossils from South American and Africa. He saw some fossils were the same.

10. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Wegener studied fossils from South American and Africa. He saw some fossils were the same.

11. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift
Some fossils were the same. How did that happen?

12. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift

13. 1912: The Theory of Continental Drift

14. Pange
Wegener wrote an article about this theory. He invented the name ‘Pangea.’

15. Pangea.
From the Greek words
Pan = ‘all’ and
Gaia = ‘Earth’

17. Pangea, the Supercontinent

19. Eurasia
Africa
Australia
Antarctica

21. 65,000,000 years ago

22. Now

23. http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/historical.html#anchor4833509

28. 1,600,000,000 years ago

103. Today

104. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

105. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

106. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

107. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

108. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

109. Copyright: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMap Project
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

128. Question: Why are the continents drifting?

129. This is a plate.
This is a plate.
Answer: Plate tectonics

130. This is a plate.
This is a plate.
plate = land
tectonics = building or moving

131. Answer: Plate tectonics

132. This is a plate.
This is a plate.
This is a plate.
This is a plate.
This is a plate.
Answer: Plate tectonics

133. http://dogfoose.com/2011/03/plate-tectonics/

134. The red areas around the plates (the plate boundaries) are ‘hot zones’ where
earthquakes happen.

135. The red areas around the plates (the plate boundaries) are ‘hot zones’ where
earthquakes happen.

136. How do the plates move?

137. Earthquakes
happen between
the plates.
1. Plates slide past each other.

138. Example: The San Andreas Fault in California

139. Volcanoes erupt
between the plates under
the ocean. The ocean
floor bigger.
2. Plates separate from each other.

140. Example: This Rift Valley in East Africa

141. Crashing plates make
mountains.
3. Plates crash into each other.
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tectonics/tectonics-collide.html

142. 3. Example: Mountains in Peru, South America

143. Will the continents continue to drift?
What will the earth look like in the future?

144. Will the continents continue to drift?
What will the earth look like in the future?
http://files.myopera.com/edwardpiercy/blog/6-Future-250AP-2.jpg

145. finis