- published: 15 Jun 2012
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Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other by drifting across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently (and more fully) developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. The theory of continental drift was superseded by the theory of plate tectonics.
Abraham Ortelius (Ortelius 1596), Theodor Christoph Lilienthal (1756),Alexander von Humboldt (1801 and 1845),Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (Snider-Pellegrini 1858), and others had noted earlier that the shapes of continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean (most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together. W. J. Kious described Ortelius' thoughts in this way:
Writing in 1889, Alfred Russel Wallace remarks "It was formerly a very general belief, even amongst geologists, that the great features of the earth's surface, no less than the smaller ones, were subject to continual mutations, and that during the course of known geological time the continents and great oceans had again and again changed places with each other." He quotes Charles Lyell as saying "Continents, therefore, although permanent for whole geological epochs, shift their positions entirely in the course of ages" and claims that the first to throw doubt on this was James D. Dana in 1849.
I'm bored, you're boarding the 504 out of town
It's late, so look straight, don't pull your eyes off the ground
You sit and wait across the gate, the minutes stretch themselves so long
You'll never be my destiny, because my destination's wrong
Right coast, left coast
Drifting round and round
I'm lost, always, and i know i can't be found
Who made these customs i can't seem to get past?
It's no use, since you've been born into a higher class
When i want you, and only you, somehow your baggage comes along
And it never stops, no, it never stops, until i'm back where i belong
Right coast, wrong coast
Drifting round and round
I'm lost, always, and i know i can't be found
You can't see me across this great divide
I'm lost, always, if i'm not right by your side
Back where i belong