Continental drift
Movement of Earth's continents relative to each other
Continental drift is the movement of Earth's continents relative to each other over geologic time. When initially proposed as a scientific theory in the early 20th century, the idea that continents could move was widely rejected. However, continental drift has subsequently been extensively validated and is incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.
“Continental drift” enters the record as movement of Earth's continents relative to each other. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Continental, drift and Movement can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Continental drift” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Continental, drift and Movement provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Continental drift” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.