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What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?

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3 Responses to “What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?”

  1. jim m said :

    Continental drift is the name of the theory of the earth from around 1925 by Alfred Wegener who suggested it based on the fit of the continental coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, later based on evidence of fossil correlations between southern Africa and South America, but not adopted overall as a
    theory of geology.

    Plate tectonics is the modern term used from the 1960’s on after geophysicists learned the mechanism of sea-floor spreading at mid-ocean ridges and of earthquakes in the ocean trenches and were able to learn the facts about the
    division of the globe into lithospheric plates created and
    destroyed by the convecting asthenosphere, and were able
    to adapt this model as a framework within which geologic
    processes operate.

  2. JoeM said :

    Plate tectonics is the term used to define the earth’s crust as divisions,…while the continental drift is only one of many processes involved in plate tectonics.

    Continental drift is the shifting/movement of a continental layer (a less denser layer than the ocean floor) as the rifts (deep cuts in the ocean floors) deposit magma onto the sea floor the ocean floor expands pushing on the continent. This force causes a rippling effect on the continental layer which is what gives us our mountain ranges in the long term and earthquakes on a daily basis.

    The sea floor being much denser will subduct under the continental layer which will make room for the sea floor’s expansion as well as to recycle it back into the magma…..I hope this helped….but there is no substitute for reading.

  3. Abby said :

    Plate Tectonics: The theory that the earth’s surface is divided into a few large, thick plates that are continually moving.

    Continental Drift: The Idea that continents move from one part of Earth to another.




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