Evidence from fossils, glaciers, and complementary coastlines helps reveal how the plates once fit together. Fossils tell us when and where plants and animals once existed. Some life "rode" on diverging plates, became isolated, and evolved into new species.
Evidence supporting Plate Tectonics Include:
1. Earthquakes and Volcanoes - These boundaries are areas where compressional forces cause tectonic plates to move toward one another and stress builds up causing a tremor or ground shake.
2. Polar wandering - magnetic pole had moved with time, an idea is known as polar wandering, or the basaltic lava flows had moved, explained by continental drift. If the magnetic poles remain stationary, then their apparent movement was caused by the drifting of continents.
3. Magnetic reversals and seafloor spreading - At oceanic ridges the plates move apart and new basaltic rock is added to each plate. The magnetism of these basaltic rocks appears to alternate to produce identical magnetic patterns on both sides of oceanic ridges. This proved to be the strongest evidence to support seafloor spreading and therefore Plate Tectonics.
4. Ocean Drilling - core samples of the ocean floor and sediments on the ocean floor were collected with increasing distance from ocean ridges.
5. Hot spots - mapping of the seafloor in the Pacific revealed a chain of volcanoes and seamounts.
6. Paleomagnetism - indicates the direction of the magnetic field when the mineral became magnetized
7. Continental Drift - continents fit together like a puzzle
8. Matching fossils- Matching fossils from different locations that were once together in the past
9. Matching Rock types - Matching rocks from different locations that were once together in the past
