ABSTRACT
During the 1950s high school science teachers often reported a strange anomaly to their students. When introducing them to the earth sciences, they noted an unusual configuration of the continents. With wry amusement it was noted that if one took a scissor and cut a map along the borders of South America and Africa, the two could be fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was as if they had once been part of the same landmass. The more scientifically literate instructors might then refer to the esoteric speculations of Alfred Wegener. A German meteorologist, Wegener had in 1912 proposed the existence of continental drift. According to his calculations, the continents had once been joined in a single supercontinent he dubbed Pangaea. Since then, over the course of many millions of years, the original assemblage had been torn asunder, with the constituent parts subsequently wandering into their present positions. Indeed, Wegner believed that this drift could be used to explain the rise and fall of mountain ranges. He proposed that when these huge lithic agglomerations collided with one another, the astounding force of the contact thrust the impact zone upward.
