Name: Jacob S.
Status: Student
Age: 12
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: February 15, 2004
Question:
When Pangea broke apart, why did Antarctica barely moved or
changed?
Replies:
Antartica has moved some, but not as much as some other continents. Fossils
found there indicate that it was not always polar. However, at one time
most land mass was concentrated in the southern hemisphere. So, what is now
in the northern hemisphere has had to travel much farther to get where it is
today.
The processes that drive continental drift are not fully understood. Why
the movement was to the north is still not fully known. Although the idea
of continental drift was proposed by Alfred Wegner in the early 1900's, it
was not accepted as a likely theory by most geologists until the late 1960's
when new data helped support it. So, the science of plate tectonics is
pretty new compared to a lot of other things.
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.
