A 6 meter thick coal seam in the Allan Hills in Antarctica could only have been formed in a swampy, tropical area.
Evidence of past climates was another piece of evidence that Wegener presented. The existence of coal deposits in the eastern United States, in Europe, and in Siberia indicated that these areas had originally been large tropical swamps. Since none of these areas were close to equatorial zones, Wegener concluded that in the past they must have been in a tropical climate, and that continental drift had brought them to their present locations.
Did You Know?
Glacial deposits and evidence of glacial scouring where no glaciers existed today also provided further evidence for the migration of continents from areas that had previously been ice covered.
History Link
Despite the large amounts of evidence that Wegener presented, the majority of the scientific community dismissed his theory as nonsense. The major stumbling block was that he was not able to provide a suitable mechanism to explain why the continents moved. It was not until several decades after his death in 1930 that new discoveries finally vindicated the main points of Wegener’s theory of continental drift.
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Coal Belts Outside of the Tropics
Coal belts outside of the current tropical zone (i.e. between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) could only have been formed in areas that were large tropical swamps in the past. Coal belts outside of the tropical zone provide clear evidence of continental drift.
- Click here and then rotate the globe in the main view panel to the right in order to locate and then zoom in on existing coal belts currently outside of the tropics in these areas:
- Europe
- Siberia
- Australia
- Africa
- South America
- North America
- Arctic