What does continental drift mean?

Definitions for continental drift
con·ti·nen·tal drift

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word continental drift.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. continental driftnoun

    the gradual movement and formation of continents (as described by plate tectonics)

GCIDE

  1. Continental drift

    the movements of continents relative to each other across the Earth's surface; see plate tectonics.

Wiktionary

  1. continental driftnoun

    the slow movement of continents explained by plate tectonics

Wikipedia

  1. Continental drift

    Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. A pioneer of the modern view of mobilism was the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer. The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but the hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. The English geologist Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism.

ChatGPT

  1. continental drift

    Continental drift is a geologic theory that suggests the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to "drift" across the ocean bed. This theory was developed in the early 20th century by Alfred Wegener based on evidence that the continents fit together like a puzzle. This belief is now explained by the movement of tectonic plates on the Earth's lithosphere.

Wikidata

  1. Continental drift

    Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other by appearing to drift across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. The theory of continental drift was superseded by the theory of plate tectonics, which builds upon and better explains why the continents move.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of continental drift in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of continental drift in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4


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"continental drift." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/continental+drift>.

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