Plate tectonics
Alfred Wegener
German meteorologist who developed the idea of continental drift
continental drift
The Hypothesis that all continents were once joined into a super continent that split
apart over millions of years. Continents continue to move around on the earth
Pangea
Ancient land mass that broke apart to form continents as we find them today; means "all
earth"
Evidence of continental drift
1. Similar fossils found in rocks on different continents
2. Similar rock structures found on different continents
3. Continents fit together like puzzles
4. Climate evidence in glaciers moving in the same directions
, seafloor spreading
Hess's theory based on continental drift that new seafloor is formed when magma is
forced upward toward the surface at a mid-ocean ridge
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Sea floor spreading mountain ridge under water in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean;
looks like the outline of the continents
ocean floor age
evidence for sea-floor spreading that proves that new rock forms close to the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge and old rocks sink, melt, and reform at ocean basins
continental shelf
A gently sloping, shallow area of the ocean floor that extends outward from the edge of
a continent.
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