Chris Blackerby

posted Feb 13, 2020, 8:39 PM

Columbia - GEOL 110

Continent A and Continent B visually appear to "fit" together like a jigsaw puzzle. Folded mountain ranges are found on both continents where the "fit" occurs. If the oldest ocean floor rock found separating the continents is 100 million years old, how old would the mountains of Continent A be (relatively speaking)? Are the continents moving towards each other or farther apart? Provide several pieces of evidence to support your answer.

According to the textbook, “During continental collisions, sedimentary rocks are pushed inland, away from the core of the developing mountain belt and over the stable continental interior.” (Tarbuck & Lutgens, 2017). So, if the oldest ocean floor rock found separating the continents is 100 million years old, the mountains of Continent A would be older than 100 million years old, simply due to the time that is required for continental collisions to form mountains; (relatively speaking, in regard to the amount of time it takes continental collisions to occur). On the ocean floor, rocks are always being sculpted; as time passes, they are forced away from the source making the ones at the conjunction point a portion of the younger rocks and the ones further away from the more established ones. The continents are moving towards each other and further apart both; in reference to Pangea, this super-continent split and drifted apart into the location of the continents we have present day. According to Samuel Levi, “the continents are not all moving apart...some are getting closer together, because some of the plates meet at converging points, and others (as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) are diverging points the plates are just "floating around" on the surface of the magma, moving.” (Levi, S, 2008). 

The mountains would be older, as the continents are constantly moving and interacting. Over 200 million years ago, the Super continent, Pangea was formed, when the continents all collided. Fortunately, convergence and divergence caused the continents to drift to their present positions. This is where the “one big jigsaw puzzle” term is mentioned, as the continents visually appear like one big jigsaw puzzle (CourseHero, 2019). The mountains of Continent A would be (relatively speaking), older than 100 million years old, (relatively speaking since the process of continental collision, when 2 tectonic plates converge and collide, thus creating and adding to mountain ranges over time, takes some time to occur). The continents are both moving towards each other as well as farther apart, continental drift, differences in magnetism, and changes in climate cause this (Quizlet, 2019).

Work Cited

CourseHero. (2019). Week-6. Retrieved from coursehero.com: https://www.coursehero.com/file/20842985/Week-6/ Quizlet. (2019). plate-tectonics-flash-cards. Retrieved from quizlet.com: https://quizlet.com/50882437/ch7-plate-tectonics-flash-cards/ 

Levi, S., "If the continents are slowly moving apart from each other ....", 10 Jun. 2008, https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index? qid=20080610100035AAON1Fd. National Geographic Society. “Continental Drift.” National Geographic, 9 Oct. 2012, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/continental-drift/. Tarbuck, Edward J., and Frederick K. Lutgens. Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology. 12th ed., Pearson, 2017.