Pangaea is a theory that a young German scientist named Alfred
Wegener came up with in 1910.
The theory stated the all the continents were all apart of one
supercontinent. And that over time, they drifted apart to make the
continents we live on today.
3.
Alfred Wegener, a German scientist, wrote Doesnt the east coast
of South America fit into the west coast of Africa, as if they had
once been joined?This is an idea Ill have to pursue.
Wegener presented his hypothesis two years later. It sated that
a very long time ago, the continents were all part of one big
supercontinent he called Pangaea.
Alfred Wegener was the first scientist to gather information
and evidence on Pangaea.
4. The Breakup of Pangaea. The continents didnt break apart over
night, but over millions of years. The picture to the right shows
how the continents drifted away from each other over the eras . 5.
Pangaea 6.
Fossils of plants and animals were found on different
continents on the opposite sides of the ocean.
The fossils found on one continent were identical to fossils
scientist found on another continent on the opposingside of the
ocean.
Whatever the fossils were, they could not have traveled across
vast oceans like the ones they wouldve had to cross.
For example, there were fossils found in South America
identical to the ones found in Africa. Whatever the fossils were
would have had to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, so imagine a land
animal we see today like a lizard, swimming across the Atlantic
Ocean, its not very likely that it would make it.
Fossils that were found: Glossopteris, Mesosaurus
7.
Scientist noticed that when they put the continents together,
landforms on different continents matched.
The mountains that run west across South Africa lined up with
the mountains in Argentina.
In South Africa, unusual coal deposits and rock formations were
the exact same as rock formations and coal deposits in Brazil.
The highlands of Scotland matched the Appalachian Mountains in
the Eastern United States.
8.
The continents look like they are scatteredpieces of a jigsaw
puzzle, if you moved them around, you would be able to fit them
together perfectly.
The most obvious to spot is how the east side of South America
fits into the west coast of Africa.
Some islands are easy to fit together
9.
Striations were found on the coast of both South America and
South Africa, the Striations left by glaciers formed patterns,
which are identical to one another.
Deposits left by glaciers during an ice age were found. Wegener
found that, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica all fit around
the South Pole, where there would have been extremely low
temperatures.
10. Coal Mountains Glossopteris Mesosaurus 11. Thank you for
listening to my presentation on the theory of Pangaea.