The theory of continental drift was proposed by:

Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) was a German meteorologist and geophysicist. He put forward the theory of continental drift in 1912 and explained it in detail in his book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" (1915).

Wegener proposed that about 200-300 million years ago, all the continents were joined together in a single huge landmass, a supercontinent, which he called Pangaea (meaning "all lands"). It was surrounded by a single vast ocean called Panthalassa ("all seas"). Around 200 million years ago, Pangaea began to break up. It first split into two large landmasses: Laurasia in the north (which later formed North America, Europe and Asia) and Gondwanaland in the south (which later formed South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica). They were separated by the Tethys Sea. These landmasses continued to break up and drift to their present positions.

Evidence Wegener gave for continental drift:

• Jigsaw fit: the coastlines of South America and Africa fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
• Similar rocks and mountain ranges on both sides of the Atlantic.
• Fossils of the same plants and animals, such as the reptile Mesosaurus and the plant Glossopteris, found on continents now separated by oceans.
• Tillite deposits (glacial deposits) found in India, Africa, Australia and South America, showing that they were once together near the South Pole.
• Placer gold deposits on the Ghana coast without any source rock nearby, the source being in Brazil.

Wegener's theory was rejected by many scientists in his lifetime, mainly because he could not explain the force that moved the continents. In the 1930s, Arthur Holmes suggested that convection currents in the mantle could drive the movement. In the 1960s, Harry Hess proposed sea-floor spreading. These ideas led to the modern theory of plate tectonics, developed in the late 1960s.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Arthur Holmes proposed the convection current theory (1930s).
• ✗Harry Hess proposed the theory of sea-floor spreading (1960s).
• ✗Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection.