We all know today that previously all the continents were united and constituted a single continent, Pangea. But did you know that this discovery is relatively recent and was only confirmed in 1915?
The meteorologist Alfred Wegener discovered that between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods the entire landmass formed Pangea. The word has its origin in Greek and means pan (everything) and gea comes from gaia (earth). All this huge continent was surrounded by a huge ocean called Panthalassa which means all the seas.
Until reaching the current conformation as we know it, it is estimated that Pangea 200 million years ago was divided into two continents: Laurasia and Gondwana. Laurasia was made up of North America, the northern portion of Asia, Japan, and Europe. While Gondwana was made up of South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica.
The German meteorologist published his discoveries in his work "The origin of Continents and Oceans" in the year 1915.
The hypothesis that the continents were previously united had been discussed since the time of Sir Francis Bacon in 1620. However, this theory could only be confirmed once the first maps were produced. Another fact that indicated the ancient union of the territories was the similarity found in the fossils of South America, India, Australia, Africa and Antarctica.
To verify that the continents are in a state of continuous movement, Wegener relied on various geological tests (same kinds of rocks on different continents), geographical tests (the coasts of the continents fit together, especially South America and Africa), paleoclimatic tests (the origin of the rocks came from the same climate, something impossible according to the current position of the continents) and paleontological (same fossils on different continents, even with land animals that would not be able to cross the sea).
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