Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics in geology is an attempt to explain the apparent relative movement of large areas of the outermost layers of the earth, including the continents, over long periods of time.

Significant arguments for an early "super-continent" which split apart over aeons were put forward by Alfred Wegener, a German physicist born in 1880, in his book Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans - first edition 1915). The theory was not taken seriously until 40 years later, after discoveries such as seafloor spreading.