The hypothesis which states that the continents were once a large mass that broke away into different parts is the continental drift or the plate tectonics.
Further Explanation:
The continental drift theory was developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, who was a meteorologist and a geophysicist. He proposed that the Earth’s rotation lead to the shift of continents away from each other. According to him, all the continents were bound together into a supercontinent called Pangaea which means single mass of land. The Pangaea broke into different continents which eventually moved to their respective locations.
The reason for the occurrence of continental drift given by Alfred was discarded by other scientists. It was later discovered that the actual reason for continental drift to occur was the theory of plate tectonics which explains the separation of continents due to the movement of tectonic plates below the Earth’s surface.
The topmost mantle and the pieces of Earth’s crust are called tectonic plates which together forms the lithosphere. The theory which described the movement of small and large plates in large-scale under the lithosphere is termed as Plate tectonics. The convection in the mantle is the reason for the plate tectonics. The high temperature in the Earth’s interior leads to the movement of plates in the lithosphere. Due to this the flow of current in the hot rising magma and the cooler magma causes sinking. This resulted in pushing and spreading away of the plates. The gaps called the mid-ocean gaps present between the tectonic plates widened up followed by filling up by the hot magma. This leads to the formation of new ocean crust and separation of the plates.
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Answer Details:
Grade: High School
Subject: Biology
Chapter: Theory of Continental Drift
Keywords:
Continental drift, plat tectonic theory, tectonic plates, lithosphere, Earth’s crust, mid ocean gaps, rotation of Earth, continents, Alfred Wegener, Pangaea, supercontinent.
