Plate Tectonics

The term Pangea refers to the proposed theory that all of the present continents of the earth were once connected into a single supercontinent. The theory given for how they became separate masses of land is known as continental drift. A German meteorologist named Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory. He based his proposal on different pieces of evident, such as fossils of the same species found on different continents, the puzzle-like fit of the continents, the roaming nature of the Earth's polar regions and others. The layer of the earth directly below the crust then, the lithosphere, is considered fractured with pieces that now move about independently. The amazing correspondence of the continents when pieced together is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence regarding the idea of Pangea and the theory of continental drift, "Scientists were led to the theory of continental drift of lithospheric plates by the amazing fit of the continents. According to this theory, collisions occurred as the lithospheric plates moved. The pressure exerted at the intersections of plates resulted in earthquakes, which over periods of many years combined to change the shape and features of the landforms" (Getis, Getis and Felman 56).

Plate tectonics has the theory of continental drift as one of its inherent components along with the concept of sea-floor spreading, a theory that rests on the fact that new oceanic plates are formed and push awa

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