Moving Continents

Whilst any child can tell you, on looking at a map of the world, that "America fits into Africa", that they were ever really one has only been scientific consensus since 1966.
Alfred Wegener was criticised and ridiculed for his 1915 theory of "Continental Drift", which questioned the Biblical story that the world was created as it is now. Any obvious changes in its appearance were then ascribed to the Flood.
Even when this idea became unfashionable, it was 50 years before the world realised that Wegener had been right. His 'theory of continental drift' was formalised and updated, and renamed the 'theory of plate tectonics'. This is now the generally accepted explanation of the current configuration of continents around the world.
Much of the world's population today (with, however, significant exceptions, such as the Creationists) now accept that the continental arrangement of the Earth has changed over time. This re-arrangement is the subject of extensive and fascinating study.

This section includes pages on:

• The History of the reaching our current understandings, from Aristotle through to today
• A brief overview of the theory of Plate Tectonics, explaining how land and seafloor are created and destroyed
• A description of the Palaeogeography of the World over the past 250 million years - including many maps showing reconstructions of estimated global configurations over that time period
• 'Alternative' views, being the beliefs of some of those who reject the theory.

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Begin by reading about the History of the development of the theory of Continental Drift, return Home, or use the navigation links on your left.

For any comments, suggestions or contributions, please e-mail me at: portsdown@bbm.me.uk