Question

Describe how continents move across the ocean basins as if they are on a conveyor belt.

Answer 1

The present continent positions are not the same as their ancient positions. For example, Africa and South America used to be together in the old Gondwanaland. Alfred Wegener noticed the correlation in complementary forms of the coast lines of these two continents and developed the theory of continental drift. But it wasn't until the late 1960's or early 1970's that the mechanism for this movement was discovered in the theory of plate tectonics. Actually, it was shown that the mid-oceanic ridges like the one going through Iceland is where molten rock is welling up from the mantle on a zone of fracturing and the convection currents from this cause the ocean spreading and thus the movement of continents away from each other as in the case of Africa and South America.