Evidence supporting the Continental Drift Theory

✅The Matching of Continents (Jig-Saw-Fit)  

✅ The coastlines of South America and Africa fronting each other have a remarkable and unique match.  

✅In 1964, Bullard created a map using a computer program to find the right fit of the  

Atlantic margin and it proved to be quiet.  

✅Rocks of the Same Age across the Oceans  

✅The radiometric dating methods have helped in correlating the formation of rocks present in different continents across the ocean.  

✅ The ancient rocks belts in the coast of Brazil match with those found in Western Africa.  

✅ The old marine deposits found in the coasts of South America and Africa belong to the Jurassic Age. This implies that the ocean never existed before that time.  

▪️Tillite

  

✅It is the sedimentary rock made from glacier deposits.  

✅ The Gondwana system of sediments from India is recognized as having its counterparts in 6 different landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere.  

✅Counterparts of this series are found in Madagascar, Africa, Antarctica, Falkland Island, and Australia not to mention India.  

✅At the base, the system has thick tillite signifying widespread and sustained glaciation.  

✅Generally, the similarity of the Gondwana type sediments evidently shows that these  

landmasses had exceptionally similar origins.  

✅The glacial tillite gives clear evidence for palaeoclimates and the drifting of continents.  

Placer Deposits  

✅ The presence of abundant placer deposits of gold along the Ghana coast and the complete lack of its source rocks in the area is a phenomenal fact.  

✅The gold-bearing veins are present in Brazil and it is evident that the gold deposits of Ghana in Africa are obtained from the Brazil plateau from the time when the two continents were beside each other.  

✅ The widespread distribution of Permo-Carboniferous glacial sediments in South America,  

Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Antarctica and Australia was one of the major pieces  

of evidence for the theory of continental drift.  

✅The continuity of glaciers, inferred from oriented glacial striations and deposits called  

tillites, suggested the existence of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which became a  

central element of the concept of continental drift. 

 

▪️Distribution of Fossils 

 

1. The interpretations that Lemurs occur in India, Africa and Madagascar led to the  

theory of a landmass named “Lemuria” connecting these 3 landmasses. 

 

2. Mesosaurus was a tiny reptile adapted to shallow brackish water. 

 

3. The skeletons of these creatures are found in the Iraver formations of Brazil and  

Southern Cape Province of South Africa.

#Geography