Answer: the correct options are
- were once connected
- are slowly drifting
Explanation: The continent is the main land mass of the earth which includes the following:
- Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, North America, South America, and Antarctica.
These continents were once connected forming a supercontinent called PANGAEA
during the late palaeozoic and early mesozoic eras, millions of years ago.
Alfred Wegener, who is a German meteorologist, in 1912 came up with a hypothesis that the continents are slowly drifting the earth. He called the movement continental drift.
The continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics. In recent studies, through the science of plate tectonics, we where able to understand the mechanism through which continental drift occurs. The mechanism includes:
- processes of seafloor spreading,
- rift valley formation, and
- subduction (where heavier tectonic plates sink beneath lighter ones).
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