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WalesGeologyQuick questions
F4: Earth Structure and Global Tectonics
Quick questions on Plate tectonic theory and evidence - WJEC A-Level Geology
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Caledonian-Appalachian belt?Show answer
The same mountain-building event is preserved in Scotland, Scandinavia and the eastern United States, a belt split by the later opening of the Atlantic, matching geology across an ocean. Glossopteris across Gondwana. This fossil plant occurs in South America, Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia, impossible unless those landmasses were once joined. The Vine-Matthews stripes. The interpretation of symmetrical magnetic stripes either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the 1960s was the observation that converted the geological community to plate tectonics.
What is q1?Show answer
What did Wegener call the ancient supercontinent? [1 mark]
What is q2?Show answer
Why was continental drift rejected when Wegener proposed it? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Explain how cooling basalt at a ridge records the Earth's magnetic field. [2 marks]
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