THE Continental Drift is a theory that once, all the current continents formed just a single land mass, called the pangea. This supercontinent, thanks to the movement of the Tectonic Plates, fragmented several times until providing the current shape of the land masses.
The first suspicions that the continents were separating in some places and approaching in others date back to the 16th century, when Abraham Ortelius, in 1596, observed that South America, for example, fit perfectly into the Africa. Thus, he suggested that the Americas would have separated from Africa and Europe.
However, it was not until 1912 that the first geologist came up with a formal theory that the continents, at some point in geological history, would have been one. He noted that some fossils, soil types and vegetation were the same or similar in different regions of the Earth separated by oceans.
However, it was only after World War II (1939-1945) that the movement of Tectonic Plates was scientifically discovered, the missing piece for The proof, in fact, in that the continents were moving and that they had previously been separated. Over the years, scientists have been discovering and describing the stages of formation of the Earth's current shape. Look at the figure below:
The fragmentation of the Earth's continents
Until 200 million years ago, the world only knew Pangea. However, 130 million years ago, it fragmentedif in two: the Laurasia and the Gondwana. After that, fragmentations continued to occur, dividing the continents and joining India with Asia.
However, it is wrong to think that this process is over. It keeps happening, but as its speed is so slow, we can't tell the difference as the continents move only a few centimeters over many years.
By Rodolfo F. Alves Feather
Graduated in Geography
