Solving the Puzzle of Plate Tectonics

Captions provided by CCTubes – Captioning the Internet! But did thee feel the Earth move?
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Why do Africa and South America fit together? Anyone who’s ever looked at a map can see that Earth’s continents are kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. The idea that continents are constantly moving and weren’t always in their current spots is a pretty obvious idea, right? You might be surprised to learn that geologists only accepted that idea recently in the past few decades, and it figuring out how plate tectonics and continental drift work required some pretty strange evidence.

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LEARN MORE:
Some background on Alfred Wegener: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/techist.html

Lystrosaurus (ancient mammal relative): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lystrosaurus

Glossopteris (ancient fern): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossopteris

The splitting of Africa: http://theconversation.com/splitting-africa-what-happens-when-a-continent-breaks-apart-6248

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Shaena Montanari
Producer/editor/animator: Andrew Orsak
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

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