Try to fit all the continent pieces together so that the continental edges match. Try to also make the colored evidence regions match.
Compare your arrangement of matched continents to that of your classmates.
Discuss the role of each piece of evidence in the arrangement of your supercontinent.
After coming to an agreement on the arrangement of your single supercontinent, glue the pieces to a sheet of construction paper.
Activity Questions
The following questions are about evaluating the quality of evidence in Table 7.5.
a. Which pieces of evidence did you consider to be strongly in support of the idea that the continents have moved over a long time scale (continental drift)?
b. Which pieces of evidence did you consider to refute the concept of continental movement over time?
c. How did you assess the quality of scientific evidence in Table 7.5?
d. Provide an example of poor quality evidence (from Table 7.5) and your reasons for considering it low quality.
e. What makes a piece of evidence strong quality compared to poor quality?
Develop your own explanation for the observed evidence listed in Table 7.5. Swap explanations with a classmate. Evaluate each other’s work based on how they address and explain the observed evidence.
One shortfall of Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift in 1912 was that it lacked an explanation for how the continents could have moved over time. Can you suggest a possible mechanism driving the movement of entire continents?
Glossopteris is a genus of fern plants known to have thrived in humid tropical and temperate climates. What does this information tell you about the climate of ancient Antarctica?
Lystrosaurus fossils have been discovered in present-day China and Southeast Asia (part of Laurasia, not part of ancient Gondwanaland). Scientists are still working on an explanation for this observation. Suggest your own explanation for this phenomenon.
Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift was first proposed in 1912. However, the concept of moving continents was not widely accepted by scientists until the 1960s. Why do you think the idea of moving continents took so long for the scientific community to accept?
Which modern day landmasses are represented by in Fig. 7.18? Label them on your map.
Are all of the current landmasses represented in Fig. 7.18? Which ones are missing?
Exploring Our Fluid Earth, a product of the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG), College of Education. University of Hawaii, 2011. This document may be freely reproduced and distributed for non-profit educational purposes.