Author Question: What are the lines of evidence that Alfred Wegener used to support the idea of continental drift? ... (Read 54 times)

Chloeellawright · **on:** Aug 22, 2018

What are the lines of evidence that Alfred Wegener used to support the idea of continental drift? Why did scientists of his day doubt that continents drifted?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Trilobites were dominant during which geologic period?

A) Jurassic
B) Permian
C) Devonian
D) Ordovician
E) Cambrian

soda0602 · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 22, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Alfred Wegener was the first scientist to advance the idea of mobile continents in 1912. Wegener proposed that the continents slowly drift across Earth's surface. Although this idea was not new, the development of better maps by the early 1900s suggested to Wegener that the shapes of matching shorelines on different continents suggested that the continents moved or drifted over geologic time. Several lines of evidence supported the idea of continental drift, namely: matching sequences of rocks and mountain chains; glacial ages and other climate evidence; and the distribution of organisms, including extant organisms and fossilized remains. The main objection from the scientific community centered on the mechanism that Wegener proposed for the movement of continents: gravitational attraction and tidal forces.

Answer to Question 2

E