Download Editorial – Alfred Wegener`s Theory By: Kelrin Li

Editorial – Alfred Wegener’s Theory
By: Kelrin Li
Some people may believe that Alfred Wegener’s theory of how all of
earth’s land masses were joined at one point in time and were called the supercontinent “Pangaea” is true and some may believe otherwise. But with all the
facts that support Wegener’s theory, versus the facts that are against it, I believe
that his theory could be true. For the first point, if I were to try to fit the
continents together and see if they could have fit together at one point, I may
have also made the statement of the jigsaw fit between South America and
Africa.
But how could it have gone from one large land mass to seven different
continents? What could’ve had such a tremendous force that it could split
Earth’s large land mass? Well, Wegener’s theory of the “continental drift” and
how he said that all of earth’s land masses were in constant motion does seem
logical. It would also explain how mountains were formed as well if in fact his
theory of Pangaea and the earth splitting apart 200 million years ago is correct in
addition. This being because if Pangaea started to break apart in that time
period and the pieces started to “drift” and move apart because Earth’s land
masses were in constant motion, then we can see how mountains were formed;
if the plates were in constant motion and collided with one another, Wegener
said that the heavier would get forced underneath by the lighter one; this would
make sense.
Wegener has also made the observation of how some plants and animals
found in the jigsaw-fitting match of South America and Africa are the same. I
feel this is very important evidence to support his theory because if these fossils
were in the same two continents that seem to fit together, the only logical
explanation, that follows his continental drift theory as well, would be that they
were once joined together.
In the 1960’s, a Canadian, J. Tuzo Wilson further developed the theory of
the continental drift. In 1968, he developed a new theory called “plate tectonics”
that helps explain most geologic processes. This theory states that Earth’s outer
shell is made of 20 plates; most being plates being made of a continent and an
ocean. And that due to unequal distribution of heat within the Earth, it would
cause “convection currents” to move plates; this would partly explain how the
earth’s land mass was split apart and how mountains were formed. Evidence of
some similar mountains ranges on our world map today is the Appalachians in
eastern United States and Canada and similar ones in the Northern British Isles
and Europe. These mountains could have been formed 300 million years ago
when North America collided with Europe and Northern Africa seeing as these
mountains are similar in age and structure but they are on opposite sides of, the
present day, large Atlantic Ocean.
But how exactly and why do plates move? In 1948, a scientist named
Ewing discovered a large group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean that were the
highest points along a mountain range hidden below sea level; he named this
the Mid Atlantic Ridge. He discovered that there were similar rocks on either
side of this large mountain range showing that there was a constant movement
of rocks on either side of the mountains because it was already known that Earth
reverses its magnetic field every now and then. In 1962, another scientist
named Hess discovered that these new rocks under the Atlantic were next to the
Mid Atlantic Ridge and from that he could conclude that the sea floor was slowly
moving from the Mid Atlantic Ridge to the USA coast; moving by up to 5 cm a
year. But as the sea floor was getting wider, wouldn’t it seem that the Earth was
enlarging in size as well? But scientists knew that that was not the case and in
finding deep trenches along the pacific coast, it seems that the Earth’s surface
was slowly moving into these trenches and vanishing the same time as new
surface was being created. These new discoveries would provide Alfred
Wegener with the information that he had not been able to find himself; an
explanation as to why and how the continents moved.
From all these discoveries and new evidence, I believe that it makes
Alfred Wegener’s theory even truer now than it was before because scientists
have found information that Wegener was not able to discover. Aside from the
many findings that Wegener revealed, the new evidence does support his theory
of Pangaea and the continental drift; Ewing and Hess’ discoveries explains even
more how the continents moved. If scientists today further investigated this
theory, I feel that it could become even more believable to many more
individuals and possibly completely true.