INTRODUCTION/MAIN Introduction/Main BACKGROUND Seafarer's Challenge Why This Interest Continental Drift Oppositions to Drift Craftsman's Approach EMPIRICAL MODEL The Empirical Model Expansion Basics Model Construction Expansion Basics Model Construction Model Demonstration Riverbed Formation Video Demonstration CONCLUSIONS Conclusions Summary of Evidence The Mid-Oceans Crests Making Mountains & The Pacific Ocean Moon Expulsion Earthquakes An Impact Vision EXPANSION CARTOGRAPHY Expansion Cartography The Big Picture Waterworld Inland Evidence EXPAND HOW? Expand How? Owen's Plasma Core Continental Shelves EPILOGUE Epilogue BOOK INFO Book Info / Feedback

THE DOMINANT TREND: CONTINENTAL DRIFT The positioning of the continents by continental drift is for many readers a known subject as is the name Alfred Wegener, the main (though not the only) instigator of the theory. Initially the drift theory met with much opposition but since the 1960s, it has rested as dogma in every level of education. For the reader unfamiliar with the theory, the following offers a brief description. Educated in meteorology and astronomy, Wegener (1880-1930) observed many striking similarities in the forms and stratigraphical appearance of the continents, such as coastal dents fitting indents and the continuation of mountain ranges on various continents. He was perhaps building upon the observations of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the famous German naturalist. From 1910 onward, Wegener promoted a thesis that the continents began as a single land mass, a supercontinent to which he ascribed the name Pangaea. With no reference to calculate its shape, Pangaea's perimeters were undefined. He assumed that Pangaea initially divided into two smaller continents, the northern called Laurasia and the southern, Gondwana Ref 1. His thesis was based primarily on the correlation between the closest two sides of these two large continents. Later calculations claimed that over a period of 225 million years the continents moved into their current positions. Research since Wegener's time suggests that his Pangaea may not have been the first supercontinent; it was the formation of a collision of smaller continents previously travelling the Earth. A recent revision to the hypothesis suggests that today's continents drifted from a cluster more relaxed than Wegener's solid Pangaea, with their shapes relatively intact. With this assembly, scientists have attempted to define the perimeters which were previously unknown. The drift concept fuelled the development of two other currently accepted theories. Plate tectonics supplied a possible cause for continental drift; the Earth's crust is comprised of segments, or plates, which shift very slowly (inches per year) by heat-generated propulsion. The continents move with them. Subduction, the premise of plate tectonics, involves the mid-ocean crest system, a network of ridges centred along the ocean floors. In subduction, new sea floor is continuously generated at a mid-ocean crest and then spreads from the centre out. Sucked by some force into the deeper hot magma, the overflow of sea floor dips under the continents, thus forming the deep ocean trenches. None of these theories offers a fully admissible explanation for the development of the planet's features. Top | Main | Problems with Drift