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Geology & Earth Sciences vocabulary · Plate Tectonics & Structures

Continental drift

Meaning in geology & earth sciences, with examples

nounCommon term

In geology & earth sciences, continental drift means: The idea, proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, that the continents have slowly moved across the Earth's surface and were once joined in a supercontinent called Pangaea.

In Turkish: kıtaların kayması, kıta kayması

How it is used

Wegener's evidence included the matching coastlines of Africa and South America, similar fossils and rocks on different continents, and clues to past climates. The idea was rejected for decades and was later explained by plate tectonics.

Example sentences

  1. Matching fossils in Africa and South America support the idea of continental drift.

  2. Wegener could not explain what caused continental drift.

Common collocations

  • theory of continental drift
  • evidence for continental drift
  • Wegener's continental drift
  • plate tectonicsThe theory that the Earth's outer shell is broken into large plates that move slowly, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building and the movement of continents.
  • tectonic plateOne of the large, rigid pieces of the Earth's lithosphere that move slowly over the mantle, usually by a few centimetres a year.
  • mid-ocean ridgeA long underwater mountain chain where two plates move apart and new oceanic crust forms from rising magma, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
  • fossilThe remains or traces of a plant or animal that lived long ago, preserved in rock, such as shells, bones, leaf impressions or footprints.

More terms: Plate Tectonics & Structures

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