Continental drift

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Antonio Snider-Pellegrini's Illustration o the closed an opened Atlantic Ocean (1858).

Continental drift is the movement o the Yird's continents relative tae ilk ither bi appearin tae drift athort the ocean bed.[1] The speculation that continents micht hae 'drifted' wis first put forrit bi Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept wis independently an mair fully developed bi Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his theory wis rejectit bi some for lack o a mechanism (tho this wis supplied later bi Holmes) an ithers acause o prior theoretical commitments. The idea o continental drift haes been subsumed bi the theory o plate tectonics, which explains hou the continents move.[2]

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