Continental Drift

A German geologist and meteorologist named Alfred Wegener introduced a theory in 1915 that the Earth’s crust is slowly drifting using fossil records as his supporting evidence. Wegeners idea was Earth was one big continent 200 million years ago, he called it Pangaea, which means “All earth”. Albert Wegener published a book about this theory in 1915 called, On the Origin of Continents and Oceans. An Austrian geologist named Eduard Seuss was the first to find that there had once been a land bridge that connecting South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica, he named the large piece of land Gondwanaland, the southern part of the huge continent Pangaea after it broke up during the Jurassic period. Seuss’s theory is supported by the fossil plants that are found throughout India, South America, southern Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. Fossils of the first marine reptiles known as Mesosaurus that are even older than dinosaurs were found in South America and South Africa. With the discovery of the fossil in two different locations across water and the study of sedimentation and fossil plant in these southern continents led a South African scientist named Alexander duToit to supporting the idea that at one point all of the continents were once together and have drifted apart like Albert Wegener theorized. In 1960, a theory was made explaining the movement of the Earth’s plates and explains the causes of volcanoes, oceanic trenches, mountain range formation, earthquakes and other phenomenon’s. Tectonic plates move at an estimated speed of one to ten centimeters per year. Earthquakes and volcano activity happens when the plates interact. There is a theory that the tectonic plates and the continental drift have a lot to do with the ice age. Tectonic plates have layers; the top layers are called crust. The crust under the ocean is called the Oceanic crust; it is thinner and denser than continental crust. The crust is always being created and destroyed. The oceanic crust is more active than continental crust. Evidence that has been collected recently that supports the theory about the continental drift or plate tectonics would be that the continents surrounding the Atlantic Ocean were moved closer would fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Living animals that are widely spread out are similar for example; South America and Africa both have similar species of monkeys. The fossil plants that are found in India, South Africa, Australia, Antarctica and South America are similar. There are many similarities geographically between South America and Western Africa. The mountain ranges in South America and in Africa match up. Scientist today have more supporting evidence to agree with Albert Wegener and his theory about the Continental Drift because of the technology that we have and the scientific method has proven most if not all of the theory to be correct. Most volcanoes are around the tectonic plates and erupt when the plates shift and earthquakes occur then the shift of the plates.

Wegener’s explained when the continents move the edges of the land would meet resistance and fold upwards to create mountains; this is how Wegener has suggested that this is how the Himalayas were formed. In 1929, around the time that Wegener’s ideas were being dismissed a man named Arthur Holmes embellished on one of Albert Wegener’s theories, the idea that the mantle undergoes thermal convection. This theory is based on the fact that a substance is heated its density lessens and rises to the top until it’s cooled and falls again. This heating and cooling effect results in enough current to cause the continents to move. Holmes suggests that this thermal convection is like a conveyor belt and the upwelling pressure could break continents apart and force the broken off continent to go in the opposite direction carried by the convection current, this idea receive little attention at the time.

Albert Wegener’s theory about the Continental Drift was not accepted immediately because of the acceptance of world science did not have the same views and as many supporting factors that can be proven like it does today. It takes time for theories to be tested and proven. Just like in the beginning people believed that the earth wasn’t round, it had to be proven by someone and it took time for the evidence to be proven. Others believed that the earth was full of water and parts of ocean floor became dry land, the scientists that believed this were called constructionists.
There are two types of non renewable resources: Fossil fuels and nuclear fuels. Fossil Fuels can be found under the Earth’s surface in rocks, these are what they call fossil fuels. Many believe they were formed millions of years ago by dead animals and plants. Coal, oil, and natural gas are also forms of Fossil fuels. These types of non renewable resources all took millions of years to form and once they are used they can never be used again or replaced.
Gas and oil are what is left from animals of the sea that died and fell to the bottom of seas, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Over a long period of time as the remains fall to the floor and the Earth’s crust moves the oil and gas moves through the rock and some even can come to the surface, these are places where you can find pockets of oil and gas found because of non-porous rock.
The idea of using non renewable recourses is such an awesome idea, but the problem that we face is the fact that we consume to much energy driven products, that non renewable recourses such as fossil fuels could not be produced fast enough. That’s the problem with using non-renewable resources; once it’s used we cannot use it again. I would think in a way we use science to use these two types of resources all of the time, but relying solely on just one would be impossible. We use science just by testing out the resources in general; some of the renewable resources I really don’t think are renewable because when using solar powered anything, it’s run on a battery which cannot be recycled because it is a heavy metal. There is a limit to everything, the way that products are used and reused, there’s no way to keep using non renewable resources at the rate we consume electricity, water, air, etc.

Reference – http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Contdrift.shtml http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/?p=condrift.htm http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/index.php?p=cdevidence.htm http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/techist.html http://www.scienceonline.co.uk/energy/nonrenewable.html http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/renewable-resources.html