Continental drift is a theory proposed by Dr. Wegener who studied this phenomena for years. The idea here is that all the continents once were connected as one large piece of land called Pangea. Then, due to plate tectonics, the continents split and spread a part from each other into where they are today. Even today, scientists are studying the possibility of land movement of the continents. However, back then when the theory was proposed, some methods to proving its existence through the scientific method worked and didn’t work.
One scientific study that Wegener completed was comparing fossils from different continents that once were suppose to be connected. He found almost identical fossils on two continents which somewhat supported his claim. He also found that plant fossils that were on one continent would not have been able to form since the continent was not the right conditions for the particular plant to live on. These examples supported his claim. This is not an example of the scientific method, though. Wegener could not test that certain plants could not live on certain continents since, technically, the conditions for life could’ve changed if the continents didn’t actually drift apart. In this aspect, the scientific method does not work since comparing fossils is only observatory and not experimental.
He could, though, test the claim of sea floor spreading that could result in continental drift. Scientists discovered that older rocks and land formations were further from a rift in the sea floor. This means that some movement might be causing this. This can be tested by analyzing the rocks in proximity to the rift in the sea floor. Then, after years of data collecting, scientists can analyze the same areas and notice different changes. This is an example of the scientific method, since it can be tested and repeated. However, it may take far too long to get accurate data. Therefore, it’s tough to analyze the concept of continental drift since comparisons aren’t reliable where as testing and experimenting is.
