page_title: Continental drift
hierarchical_section_title: Continental drift
caption_attribution_description: English: Animation of the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea and the subsequent drift of its constituents, from the Early Triassic to recent (250 Ma to 0). Français&#160;: Animation montrant la rupture du supercontinent Pangea et de la dérive subséquente de ses constituants, du Trias précoce jusqu'à l'ère actuelle (-250 Ma à 0). Deutsch: Darstellung der Auseinanderbrechens des Superkontinents Pangea und der darauf folgenden Kontinentaldrift der Einzelteile vom Anfang der Trias bis zur Gegenwart (250 Millionen Jahre vor unserer Zeit bis heute)
context_page_description: Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism. The idea of continental drift has since been subsumed by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains that the continents move by riding on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.
context_section_description: Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism. The idea of continental drift has since been subsumed by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains that the continents move by riding on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.
caption: The continental drift of the past 250 million years