What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?
The difference between continental drift and plate tectonics is that the theory of continental drift states that the world was made up of a single continent. The theory of plate-tectonics, on the other hand, states that earth’s surface is broken into numbers of shifting plates or slabs.
What are 3 possible causes of plate tectonics?
In this lesson, we explore the causes of plate movement, including thermal convection, ridge push and slab pull.
What is not caused by plate tectonics?
: tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers, valleys, mountain formation, faults…
What are the 2 types of tectonic plate?
Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere. The plates are around 100 km (62 mi) thick and consist of two principal types of material: oceanic crust (also called sima from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon and aluminium).
What is your basis in identifying the plates?
There are two major factors used to classify plate boundaries: 1) how the plates are moving relative to each other, and 2) the type of crust and lithospheric mantle that makes up the plate (basically oceanic plate material versus continental plate material versus terrane type material.
Plate tectonics explains why Earth’s continents are moving; the theory of continental drift did not provide an explanation. Therefore, the theory of plate tectonics is more complete.
This dense lithosphere will tend to pull the rest of the lithosphere downward. A combination of dragging the lithosphere along the top of the convection cell, ridge push, sliding, and slab pull all appear to be contributing factors to the cause of plate tectonics.
What evidence did Alfred use?
He used fossil evidence, such as that of tropical plants found on the Arctic island of Spitzbergen. He found large-scale geographic features that matched, like the Appalachian Mountains in the United States and the Scottish Highlands, as well as rock strata in South Africa that matched those in Brazil.
What evidence is there to support Pangaea?
Glacial deposits, specifically till, of the same age and structure are found on many separate continents that would have been together in the continent of Pangaea. Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes the presence of similar and identical species on continents that are now great distances apart.
Why did most scientists reject Wegener’s hypothesis for nearly half a century?
Why did most scientists reject Wegener’s theory for nearly a half century? Most scientists rejected Wegener’s theory because he could not explain the force that pushes or pulls the continents.
What was Wegener’s hypothesis about the continents?
In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other. He called this movement continental drift.