Chapter: Formation of Mountain Ranges

Continental Drift

About 100 years ago the german natural scientist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed a very important theory. He stated that all currently existing continents belonged to a huge supercontinent called Pangaea 225 million years ago.

The problem with Wegener was that he didn't succeed in finding the cause of the movement of the continents and thus many other scientists didn't believe him.

Through the work of many geoscientists the hypothesis of plate tectonics was corroborated. With this theory many geological phenomena can be explained: the formation of mountain ranges and their geographical distribution; the distribution of the vulcano- and earthquake-zones as well as the deep-sea trenches; formation and the age of the oceans.