Continents Move As Fast As Your Fingernails Grow
Classical Mechanics
Level
1
The theory of Plate Tectonics proposes a mechanism by which the locations and forms of the Earth's continents have drifted throughout geologic time. What is the mechanism behind continental drift?
Mantle convection.
Contraction due to the Earth cooling over time.
The Moon’s tidal forces.
The Earth spinning on it’s axis.
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1 solution
The mantle is very hot and it convects as a way to dissipate the excess heat from the core of the Earth. Since the crust is lighter than the mantle and "floats" on top of it, the convection going on below the crust and it moves the crust around.So mechanism behind continental drift is mantle convection.