Continental Shapes

The origin of the theory that continental drift has occurred, is from Alfred Wegener’s fascination that the continents seemed to fit perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle, despite being thousands of kilometres away from each other.

Alfred Wegener creatively explains this by stating, ‘It is just as if we were to refit the torn pieces of a newspaper by matching edges and then checking whether the lines of print run smoothly.’

Alfred Wegener used present-day shorelines to show how the continents fit together. However, he was challenged when others correctly argued that erosion continually changes shorelines over time. Today, scientific studies using computer-generated models of the continents show that they fit extremely well, patriculary if the continental shelf margins are used instead of the shoreline. This is because it displays the entire continental shape rather than just the landmass seen from space. This evidence suggests that they were once connected together as a supercontinent called ‘Pangea’ and throughout time have drifted apart.

The most common example used to explain this idea, is how the east coast of South America fits perfectly with the west coast of Africa.

The biggest problem with this evidence is understanding what forces were strong enough to cause the continents to move. However, other evidence discovered later will help support the arguement.

Therefore the question is, is this fit an accident, or does it truly support the hypothesis that the continents were once joined together?