Explain how fossils, glaciers and magnetic pole wandering provide evidence that supports the theory of plate tectonics.

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. If Southern Hemisphere continents were reassembled into a single landmass, glacial remnants in Africa and India would realign.

Some fossils from the same species are found in different continents, across sea, these species could not swim so big distances, so it suggests that once the continents were joint and species could walk from America to Africa and other continents.

Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very close to the equator, it suggests that the glaciers either formed in the middle of the ocean and/or covered most of the Earth. Today glaciers only form on land and nearer the poles, it can be suggested that glaciers were centered over the southern land mass close to the South Pole and the continents moved to their present positions afterwards.

Polar wandering is the movement of the magnetic poles over Earth’s surface through geologic time. It suggests that plates move.

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