How did Wegener explain why?

How did Wegener explain why?

How did Wegener explain similar fossils on different continents? Since neither reptile could have swum great distances across salt water he inferred that they once lived on a single landmass that has since split apart. When continents collide, their edges crumple up.

What supports Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift?

Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The fossils of these organisms are found on lands that are now far apart. Wegener suggested that these creatures were alive in warm climate zones and that the fossils and coal later had drifted to new locations on the continents.

Was Wegener’s hypothesis was about the continents all slowly moving together?

He hypothesized that all of the modern-day continents had previously been clumped together in a supercontinent he called Pangaea (from ancient Greek, meaning “all lands” or “all the Earth”). Over millions of years, Wegener suggested, the continents had drifted apart. He did not know what drove this movement, however.

What is the nickname for continental drift?

Pangea’s existence was first proposed in 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener as a part of his theory of continental drift. Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”

How did Wegener come up with the continental drift hypothesis?

He called his hypothesis continental drift. Besides the way the continents fit together, Wegener and his supporters collected a great deal of evidence for the continental drift hypothesis. For one, identical rocks of the same type and age are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

What was Alfred Wegener’s problem with the Earth?

His major problem was finding a force or forces that could make the continents “plow around in the mantle,” as one critic put it. Wegener tentatively suggested two candidates: centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the Earth, and tidal-type waves in the Earth itself generated by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.

How did Wegener prove the existence of the South Pole?

On Wegener’s map, however, it clustered neatly around the South Pole—because Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India had once comprised a Southern Hemisphere supercontinent (Gondwanaland). Wegener considered such paleoclimatic validation one of the strongest proofs of his theory.

What did Alfred Wegener say about the Mesozoic era?

The Mesozoic era refers to the time in between the Paleozoic and Cenozoic era and extended over 150 million years ago. In his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans , Wegener foretold plate tectonics and provided an explanation for continental drift.