Question

What is one reason why many geologists did not at first accept the theory of continenal drift ?

Answer 1

Because Alfred Wegener was unable to explain the mechanism behind the drifting of the continents

Step-by-step explanation:

Alfred Wegener was the first person to discover the concept of continental drift. He proposed various evidences in support of the continental drift theory. This includes the following-

• presence of similar fossil assemblages in different distant continents.
• matching of the continental margins
• presence of similar rock sequences, in the continental edges

But the main mechanism behind the continental motion was not explained by him. So, most of the geologists did not accept the continental drift theory.

Later, with the modification, the plate tectonic theory was developed that provided the main mechanism for the plate mechanism. The main mechanism here is the convection current that forms in the mantle.

Answer 2

The Continental drift is the displacement of continental masses relative to each other. This hypothesis was developed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, who affirmed that thousands of years ago there was a single and unique supercontinent, called Pangea, which later became separated.

His formulations were based mainly on the way in which the forms of the continents seem to fit on each side of the Atlantic Ocean, such as Africa and South America. He also took into account the distribution of certain fossils that coincided in continents far from each other.

At first this approach was discarded by most of his colleagues, because his theory lacked a logical and geological explanation for its epoch.

He proposed that the continents move on another denser layer of the Earth that made up the ocean floor. But it was not until the 1960s, with the development of the theory of tectonic plates, that the movement of the continents could be adequately explained.