Who proposed the theory that continents move and that they were once connected into Pangaea?

• A. Charles Darwin
• B. Alfred Wegner
• C. Isaac Newton
• D. Nicolaus Copernicus

Answer: (B)

Alfred Wegener proposed that continents move and were once connected in a single landmass called Pangaea. He supported this with several lines of evidence: the way coastlines of continents like South America and Africa fit together, the similar fossils found on continents that are now far apart, matching rock formations and mountain belts, and clues from past climates such as glacial deposits in regions that are now warm and coal deposits in regions that are now cold. He even named the supercontinent Pangaea to describe this ancient, unified landmass. Although his idea faced skepticism because he couldn't explain a convincing mechanism for how continents could move, it laid the groundwork for the later theory of plate tectonics, which explains movement through shifting lithospheric plates driven by mantle convection. The other scientists mentioned contributed to very different areas—Darwin to evolution, Newton to gravity and motion, Copernicus to the heliocentric model—so they are not associated with this theory.