Continental Shapes

Scholars have commented for centuries on how conveniently the boundaries of South America fit with Africa, hinting that they were once joined and separated by continental drift. When examining the sea floor around a land mass we can get a mapping out of the continental shelf, which shows us the land that water has since covered, giving the continent a true boundary.

The coastline of land that we can see of a continent from above won't match with others, which is why finding out the continental shelf of land masses is essential in analyzing the shapes of continents in relation to each other.

With the continental shelf of every land mass examined, a jig-saw fit is apparent with many continents, providing strong evidence for the theory of continental drift.

This picture shows how Africa and South America, given the continental shelves, fit together like pieces of a jig saw puzzle.

Continental Drift Theory

Continental Drift is the theory proposed by meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915, hypothesizing that there was once a supercontinent that joined all land masses over the earths mantle, called Pangaea, that slowly started to break up 190 million years ago. These broken up continents went on to become all the land masses that are on earth today.

Evidence supporting this theory are continental shapes, fossil distribution, palaeoclimates, age of rocks and sediments, direct measurements, cross-continental and geological formaions and glacial deposits.



This stop motion clip demonstrates the breakup of Pangaea over many years until present day by continental drift.