Continental drift is the theory that the positions of the earth's continents have moved considerable distances throughout geologic time. A German meteorologist, by the name of Alfred Wegener, proposed the first comprehensive theory of continental drift in 1912. He based it on the way the continents fit together on the opposing Atlantic coasts as well as the paleontology correlation on both sides of the Atlantic. The theory he proposed, stated that, 200 million years ago there was one large continent, or supercontinent, called Pangaea; Pangaea split into two large landmasses called, Laurasia and Gondwanaland.(Plummer 460)

During the Mesozoic era, Laurasia and Gondwanaland broke apart in some areas and drifted further away from their previous positions In this process, the Earth's rotation caused horizontal alterations in the granite continents floating on the sea of the basaltic ocean floors. The frictional drag along the leading edges of the drifting continents created mountains. Wegener's theory met controversy until 1954, when British geophysicists seeking to explain the phenomenon of polar wandering revived it. (Plummer 460)

gists were again becoming interested in the idea of moving continents, a geologist at Princeton University, by the name of Harry Hess came up with the theory of sea floor spreading in 1962. Hess's theory states that the sea floor moves away from the mid-oceanic ridge as a result of mantle convection. This theory clearly contrasted with Wegener's early theory of continental drift, except for Wegener believed that the sea floor remained stationary while the continents moved through it. In the late 1960's the theory of Plate Tectonics evolved from the two

Nisbet, E. G. Living Earth: A Short History of Life and Its Home. New York:

It's difficult, if not impossible, to separate the argument of how life effects plate tectonics from the argument of how plate tectonics affects life. One can imagine what the earth might be like if plate tectonics were not active here. Pangea was probably relatively featureless, and if the earth's crust were stationary, it would undoubtedly remain flat. In addition, weathering and erosion would quickly bring the continent to sea level, and eventually the tides would disperse the sediment across the ocean floor (Perhaps like an Atlantis effect). The absence of plate tectonics would tremendously affect life on earth. There is a good chance that life could have formed in the oceans in the absence of plate tectonics, but it might not have persisted. It is doubtful that life would ever have been able to survive on land. The actions of weathering and erosion, constantly washing vital nutrients into the sea, and a lack of some kind of mechanism for returning those nutrients back to the land, the rock would become incapable of supporting life.

Plummer, Charles C., McGeary, David, Carlson, Diane H.. Physical Geology Eighth Edition. McGraw-Hill.1999. 460-492

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