What is the Difference Between Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics?
🆚 Go to Comparative Table 🆚The main difference between continental drift and plate tectonics lies in the explanation and mechanism behind the movement of Earth's continents.
Continental Drift:
- Proposed by Alfred Wegener in the early 20th century.
- Suggests that all land masses on Earth were once part of one supercontinent.
- The movement of the continents is not well explained.
- The theory was initially ridiculed and not widely accepted during Wegener's time.
Plate Tectonics:
- Developed after World War II, building on Wegener's theory of continental drift.
- Explains that the Earth's landmasses move due to the motion of tectonic plates, which are pieces of the lithosphere (made up of the crust and the upper mantle).
- The lithosphere float on a layer of partly liquid rock called the asthenosphere, allowing the tectonic plates to move.
- The theory of plate tectonics is more complete and has gained widespread acceptance among scientists.
In summary, the theory of continental drift suggests that the continents move, but does not provide a clear explanation for the force behind their movement. On the other hand, plate tectonics offers a more comprehensive explanation, detailing the movement of tectonic plates and the underlying mechanisms that cause their motion.
On this pageWhat is the Difference Between Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics? Comparative Table: Continental Drift vs Plate Tectonics
Comparative Table: Continental Drift vs Plate Tectonics
Here is a table comparing the differences between Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics:
Feature | Continental Drift | Plate Tectonics |
---|---|---|
Definition | Continental Drift is a theory that suggests Earth's continents are in constant motion, drifting on the ocean bed. | Plate Tectonics is a theory in geology that describes the features and movement of Earth's surface, explaining how Earth's continents move. It is developed based on the theory of continental drift. |
Origin | Proposed by Alfred Wegener in the early 1900s. | Developed after World War II, building upon Wegener's work and incorporating new evidence and proposed mechanisms for the movement of continents. |
Movement Mechanism | Initially, there was no proposed mechanism for the force that could move the massive continents in the continental drift theory. | The movement of lithospheric plates, or continental drift, is believed to be caused by the radioactive decay of elements in the core and mantle, producing convection currents in the mantle. |
Evidence | The presence of similar plant and animal species around the shores of different continents, glacial features in the geologic record of South Africa, India, and Australia, and the fit of the continental shelves like a jigsaw puzzle. | More evidence and proposed mechanisms for the movement of continents, such as the discovery of subduction zones that absorb the extra oceanic crust, and the study of the spreading of the rift valley. |
Impact | Continental drift was initially ridiculed and rejected by the scientific community, but it paved the way for the development of plate tectonics. | Plate tectonics is now a widely accepted scientific theory and an important aspect of geology, oceanography, geophysics, and paleontology. |
Read more:
- Continental Crust vs Oceanic Crust
- Lithosphere vs Asthenosphere
- Lithosphere vs Crust
- Island vs Continent
- Country vs Continent
- Gene Migration vs Genetic Drift
- Diffusion Current vs Drift Current
- Uniformitarianism vs Catastrophism
- Hydrosphere vs Lithosphere
- Mountain vs Plateau
- Biosphere vs Lithosphere
- Geography vs Geology
- Convergent vs Divergent Evolution
- Convection vs Diffusion
- Stromatolites vs Thrombolites
- Volcanoes vs Earthquakes
- Rate Theory vs Plate Theory
- Earthquake vs Tremor
- Genetic Drift vs Gene Flow