what is continental drift?

Answer 1

Basically, in a nutshell, it is the theory that millions of years ago all of the continents as we know them today were together as one large continent referred to as Pangaea. It was theorized that over time, this "super continent" began to drift apart, slowly forming the continents of today.

Answer 2

Bleakisbeautiful:

To understand "Continental Drift" look at a "Lava Lamp". If you cut the Earth in half you would find three parts: the center is called the Core and is very hot, the next layer is the Mantle (divided into upper and lower sections) and last is the solid ground called the Crust. Heat from the Core causes the (upper) Mantle to be molten and to have convection currents, the way water moves around when it boils. This very slow current causes the Crust , which is divided into large sections called Plates, and floating on top, to move around. This process is called "Continental Drift" because in 1915 Alfred Wegener noticed that the "Continents" of Africa and South America looked like they were once one whole landmass that had split and "Drifted" apart.

In my "Lava Light" example, the light bulb would represent the Core, supplying the heat to warm the oil ,which would represent the Mantle, and the warm oil would make the little "blobs" which would represent the Crust move around.

Answer 3

Continental Drift is that drift in which the continents drifted apart from each other. Look in the atlas, if you see the whole map of the world we can see that Africa and South America were joined.Also the fossil finds also prove this point

Answer 4

The movement of the continents relative to each other. Continental drift is a consequence of plate tectonics. Continents generally move with respect to each other at the rate of a few centimeters per year.

Answer 5

the surface of the earth is made up of big moving plates. For example people living in europe are on a different plate to those living in America. Below these plates is what is known as the mantle made up of molten rock and magma, due to currents in the mantle this moves the plates that lie on top causing them to corresponding plates to move away or toward each other. This is how earthquakes occur and over millions of years how mountain ranges such as the himalayas are formed. Over millions of years the plates will have moved great distances which means the globe will look a lot different in a 1000000 years time from what you see in a atlas. The movement of the continents due the plate tectonics is known as continental drift.

Answer 6

Continental drift, first proposed as a theory by Alfred Wegener in 1912, is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other.

Answer 7

The crust of the earth is composed of / consists of several "tectonic plates" The continents comprise the largest of these plates.

Theory is that all of the continents were at one time "bunched" together, and these plates (and the continents) drifted slowly apart over ages.

Interesting is that if you look at the east coast of South America, and the west coast of Africa this is almost unmistakeable. They are like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together. You can see this for other land masses as well if you look at a globe. Madagascar "plugs" into Mozambique pretty well, as do Tasmania and Papua New Guinea to Austrailia.

Answer 8

Continental drift is known as a phenomena that took place when the earth splitted to form two planets originally known as Gondwanaland and eurasia.
These planets moved away from each other,further splitting this is known as 'continental drift'.

Answer 9

The constant shifting of the earth's crust. There are many plates across the globe. The earth's rotation caused them to move, bring with them the land masses that may be resting as part of them. North America moves toward the west on more than one plate, when a faster moving plate encounters a slower moving plate, you get earthquakes. This is the way mountains are formed also. The continents began as a single land mass, eventually splitting in to two and than forming as the movement and splitting continued into the seven we now know. This also occurs under the ocean, but you don't see it very clearly.

Answer 10

continental drift is when the plates of the earth move. did you know the continents used to be together and that's called a pangea....