As a child I can remember thinking that Brazil looked like it fit into Africa. Before plate tectonics was mentioned. Evidence was gradually gathered and first widely publicized in a book the year before I was born. However, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that overwhelming additional evidence in a number of fields brought wide discussion and acceptance of the idea. By that time I had studied geology in college. where the evidence made sense to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
It’s pretty amazing that it has only been 60 years or whatever that an “understanding” of how the earth works has come into being. I don’t recall what the earlier ideas were. On the other hand, even without a complete idea of how things work, we can know how SOME things work, and use that knowledge to find oil and minerals in the ground since way back when.
Makes me wonder what we will know in another 60 years.
“Well of COURSE travel through worm-holes is possible.”
Of course when our future generations can’t figure out that eating “Tide Pods” is a bad idea, I’m not sure.
Thanks glee'. Continental drift was dreamed up before WWII, and based on the superficial resemblance of the two coastlines. The plate tectonics model is warmed-over continental drift, and arose after the IGY which began in the mid-50s and continued for much more than one year. :^) The only evidence for the drift (still a much better name) consists of the magnetic lines preserved in rock near the major plate boundaries; it shows variations in the Earth's magnetic field orientation and/or intensity over time, and that has then been used to estimate the relative locations.