Continental drift?

Question

If the continents drift about an inch every year how can ancient "observatories" (such as Stonehenge or the Giza pyramids) still hold any accuracy? I understand measurements can add compensation for the "drift" of the stars but what about continental drift?

Answer 1

Well sceintists do know, more or less, where the continents were at a given time, or at least they can speculate on such things and then as a previous poster mentioned, work the math accordingly.
But think of it this way. If stonehenge was made roughly 4000 years ago and the plates drift 1 inch a year, that is 4000 inches or roughly 330 feet. Hardly enough to knock celestial observations way off.

Answer 2

If your figure of 1 inch per year is accurate, how far is that in the time since those observations were made? The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BCE. At an inch per year, that's a relative drift of only 380.5 feet, or .07 miles. That tiny distance wouldn't make a dent in the observations of celestial objects.

Answer 3

Stonehenge and Giza were observatories of astronomy.
They would hardly be affected by earthly land movements of 250 feet in 3000 years.

Answer 4

It's all a matter of scale, a drift of even several hundred feet would not severely alter the accuracy of these observation especially when you consider the accuracy of the tools used to construct them.

Think about it this way when you are looking at something hundreds light years away is a few hundred, or thousand feet going to make that much difference?

Answer 5

Stonehenge and the pyramids are located on stable ground that moves with the continents.

Answer 6

scientists calculate and study how the continents are drifting now and do the math backwards.