Download plate tectonics and continental drift unit notes

PLATE TECTONICS & CONTINENTAL DRIFT
A.CONTINENTAL DRIFT
1) Theory
1) An idea or observable fact
(reason why)
2) Must have evidence
2) Continental Drift
2) “Theory” that continents (1st)
were once together in one
piece called PANGAEA
Then they drifted apart (2nd)
into the places they are
today
They are still moving today (3rd)
B. SEA-FLOOR SPREADING:
1) Sea – Floor Spreading
(1st) underground, hot liquid
rock flows into the cracks
in the ORIGINAL ocean
floor
(2nd) Next, Liquid rock
hardens & creates
NEW ocean floor
(3rd)
Last, the NEW ocean
floor pushes the old
floor outwards causing
plates carrying
continents to drift.
C. PLATE TECTONICS:
1) Plate Tectonics
1) Theory that Earth’s crust is
made out of invisible
sections called “plates”
Plates move in a slow,
constant motion, driven by
convection currents in the
mantle
2) Pangaea
2) The shape of continents
as 1 landmass – before they
drifted.
3). Alfred Wegener
3) (1912) German scientist who
created of the
was a teacher & astronomer
* meteorologist
* geophysicist
4). Wegener’s Theory
Continental Drift Theory
4) Continents were once
Pangaea then drifted
apart but are still moving
EVIDENCE:
Landforms, Fossils, Climate
5) Theory Rejected
5) Could not prove reasons
for how or why continents
had moved