, Early Ideas About the Earth
Theory People Year Information
They worked in the Appalachian and Caledonian
Mid 19th mountains and believed that the continents
Geosyncline US and UK century were fixed through time and that compression
Model geologists – late could be explained by contraction theory, the
1960’s idea that cooling had caused the Earth to shrink.
Position of the continents had moved over time
but no mechanism was proposed. Based on
Alfred Wegener 1915
Continental distribution of rocks and fossils in different
Drift continents.
Convection currents in the mantle carried the
Arthur Holmes 1944 continents like rafts.