---
id:"kb-2026-00369"
title:"Continental Drift"
schema_type:"TechArticle"
category:"science"
language:"en"
confidence:"high"
last_verified:"2026-05-22"
generation_method:"ai_assisted"
ai_models:["claude-opus"]
derived_from_human_seed:true
primary_sources:
  - title:"The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Alfred Wegener, 1915)"
    type:"book"
    year:1915
    url:"https://archive.org/details/originofcontinen00wege"
    institution:"Self-published"
secondary_sources:
  - title: "MDN Web Docs — HTTP"
    type: "documentation"
    year: 2026
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP"
    institution: "Mozilla"
completeness: 0.88
ai_citations:
  last_citation_check:"2026-05-22"
---

## TL;DR

Continental drift (Wegener, 1912) proposed that continents were once joined in a supercontinent (Pangaea) and drifted apart. Initially rejected (couldn't explain mechanism), later confirmed by seafloor spreading (Hess, 1960s) and incorporated into plate tectonics. Coastline fit of South America and Africa was Wegener's first clue.

## Core Explanation

Evidence: matching fossils (Mesosaurus in Africa + South America), matching rock formations, glacial deposits in now-tropical regions, paleomagnetism (rocks record Earth's magnetic field at formation time). Pangaea: existed ~335-175 million years ago. Preceded by earlier supercontinents (Rodinia, ~1 Ga). Future supercontinent: Pangaea Proxima (predicted 250 million years).

## Further Reading

- [The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Alfred Wegener, 1915)](https://archive.org/details/originofcontinen00wege)