Continental Drift, or Drivel?

Continental drift is a popular theory that appears logical when you simply examine and compare the shapes of continents on a globe. If God wanted to grasp the planet in His hands and compress it, squishing out a lot of the seawater, at least some of our current landforms would fit nicely together. This suggests that long ago, maybe they were together; they gradually separated and drifted apart. The theory emerges as part of a science called plate tectonics, the study of the earth's crust.

If it's true that some or all of the continents of today once were joined, what might the earth have looked like Back When? Eduard Suess, an Austrian geologist, described an ancient supercontinent he called Gondwanaland. The name came from a plant, gondwana, which Suess said is indigenous to all the far-flung places in the world that once comprised this land mass. Those places included practically all the land in the southern hemisphere: Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, Australia and numerous latter-day islands. There was a lot more land involved, but much of it over time was devoured by the sea, Suess believed.

Not all scientists agree with the Gondwanaland theory. Some, for example, concur that our continents once were much closer together and possibly were connected by land bridges, but were not united. At the other theoretical extreme, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener in the 1920s opined that not only was there a Gondwanaland, but that it originally was part of a super-supercontinent. The earlier land mass Wegener called Pangaea. Gondwanaland separated from the northern half, called Laurasia, and in time split apart. (India, incidentally, supposedly was part of the southern supercontinent, Gondwanaland; ultimately, it broke off as a huge island, then reconnected—not with the southern mass, but with Laurasia.) The time frame for all this: at least 200 million years.

Hmmm . . . 200 million years. Perhaps there IS such a thing as too much history. (Some of us art still trying to sort out what happened in World War I.)

Return to the current issue of Blithering Antiquity

Return to the home page of Blithering Antiquity

Return to Hornpipe Vintage Publications

 ..

© 2003 Hornpipe Vintage Publications

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this Web site may be used without express written permission from the editor.