Continental Drift

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Continental Drift

Introduction

The theory of Continental Drift is the reasoning by popular scientists to uphold the phenomenon of the primordial earth. The theory states that it has got discovered that the East coastline of Northern and Southern America adjusts perfectly with the western coastline of Europe and Africa (Steblov, G. M. et al., 2005). However, if they got joined together at one time, then it should have taken millions of years to them to separate float away poles apart. Scientists and other technological intellectuals proposed that the present distance between North America and Europe is the outcome of 200 million years of continental drift, whereas, between South America and Africa, it is around 20 million years (Steblov, G. M. et al., 2005).

The calculation of these millions of years actually got derived from the radiometric dating of seabed rocks. It got studied that the oldest seabed rock is 200 million years old. On its basis, it got anticipated that this must be the length of time taken to separate North America from Europe. However, through calculating from this figure, dividing the distance between both continents by the number of years, it resulted that continental drift moves continents on a rate of five feet per century, which is around 0.6 inch per year (Steblov, G. M. et al., 2005).

Evidence collected in 20th Century

Coral Reef in the Himalaya

Scientists have found evidence of coral reef alongside Himalaya range. Coral reefs commonly found on the sea bed, which got composed of calcium carbonated. However, Himalaya range is no wear near to ocean; therefore it got expected that this presence of coral reef is because of the plate tectonic collision happened millions of years ago.

Composition of Rocks

Geologists have discovered rocks on various coasts of different continents, which possess the homogeneous composition and also has the age and formation. This phenomenon also made geologists curious about the happening of continental drift in the historic times.

The Fossil of Mesosaurus

Mesosaurus was a prehistoric crocodile shaped reptile exists thousands of years ago. However, in the 20th century, a fossil of Mesosaurus got found on the coastal region Brazil and South Africa. Though, according to modern geographical map, both countries are miles far from each other, but the evidence of this fossil is a great evidence of continuous continental drift.

Acceptance of Wegner's Theory during his Time

Most scientist and intellectuals come across with this problem of rejection of their theories. Not only Wegner, various theories of many scientists not got accepted while proposed (Williams, J. K., 2007). However, in the case of Wegner, his proposal was quite unique as it needed evidences from millions of years. Intellectuals never thought of any such phenomenon as it is quite unobservable (Chester, R., 2008). However, in this modern scientific era, various technological developments have occurred which made scientists realized that these the continents in fact got separated, and the process is still going on. After conducting geographical and deep oceanic studies, scientist brought out various literal reading, which resolve their ...