A theory that states that Earth's surface is made of rigid slabs of rock, or plates, that move with respect to each other. Alfred Wegener could not explain how continents drifted. The theory of plate tectonics does explain this and states that each plate moves over Earth's hot and semi-plastic mantle.

Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.

The difference between continental drift and plate tectonics is that the theory of continental drift states that the world was made up of a single continent. The theory of plate-tectonics, on the other hand, states that earth's surface is broken into numbers of shifting plates or slabs.

In 1915, Alfred Wegener proposed that all of Earth's continents were once joined in an ancient supercontinent he called Pangaea. ... Create your own version of Pangaea by fitting Earth's landmasses together like puzzle pieces. Use evidence from fossils, rocks, and glaciers to refine your map.

The theory of continental drift suggests that all the land masses on earth were once part of one supercontinent. Plate tectonics is the ability to measure the movement of land masses.

Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.

In 1915, Alfred Wegener proposed that all of Earth's continents were once joined in an ancient supercontinent he called Pangaea. ... Create your own version of Pangaea by fitting Earth's landmasses together like puzzle pieces. Use evidence from fossils, rocks, and glaciers to refine your map.

Continental drift describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time. Today, the theory of continental drift has been replaced by the science of plate tectonics. The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. ... He called this movement continental drift.

Three-dimensional diagram showing crustal generation and destruction according to the theory of plate tectonics; included are the three kinds of plate boundaries divergent, convergent (or collision), and strike-slip (or transform).