The Early Theory of Continental Drift

Continental Drift - Early Evidence

Alfred Wegener (1912) and Early ideas of Continental Drift

Continental Fit

Map outlines of continental shelves fit across the Atlantic
The internal structure of the continents fit like the colors on jigsaw puzzles

Distribution of Fossils

Glossopteris
Mesosaurus
Lystrosaurus

Ancient Climate Zones of the Permian

Equatorial Coal Swamps
Subtropical Deserts
Polar Glaciers

Why Continental Drift did not Catch On

-If it did happen it can happen-
The fundamental problem: All empirical evidence that it happened, no good explanation of how it might have happened.

There is a lesson here to be learned about science: That which is discredited may not be disproved!

It also didn't help that:

Wegener was a meteorologist (what could he know about geology?)
Most of the evidence was in the Southern Hemisphere (what do they know about anything?)

Later Evidence

Each of the continents has a different "polar wandering curve"
Mid Oceanic Ridge-Longest Mountain Chain in the World
Deep oceanic trenches associated with "ring of fire"
Earthquakes concentrated along mid oceanic ridges and along trenches.
Mid oceanic ridge is surrounded by magnetized bands from where new ocean floor has been forming.
Oldest (deepest) sediments are younger near the mid oceanic ridges and older near the ocean margins

The physical mechanism, and final mechanism created acceptance of the idea and the theory of plate tectonics. (Harry Hess, 1950's and 60's

The lithosphere is divided into plates with oceanic crust and continental crust
new oceanic crust is formed at the mid-oceanic ridges--divergent plate boundaries.
Old oceanic crust is recycled at the oceanic trenches--convergent plate boundaries.
continental material does not get recycled.

A school lesson on plate tectonics

Continents Moving Through Time

see detailed map at:

Grand Canyon.org

this is a more detailed reconstruction I found at Stuttgart