performance benchmark e- r p d p（性能基准测试e - r p d p）（16页）.docVIP

Performance Benchmark E.12.C.2 Students understand the concept of plate tectonics including the evidence that supports it (structural, geophysical and paleontological evidence). E/S Why is the Earth so restless? What causes the ground to shake violently, volcanoes to erupt with explosive force, and great mountain ranges to rise to impressive heights? The answers to these questions were discovered as one of sciences’ most revolutionary and recent theories took shape. It began with Alfred Wegener… Continental Drift Alfred Wegener (German Astronomer and Meteorologist) proposed in 1914 that all landmasses were at one time connected as a supercontinent approximately 200 million years ago which he called Pangaea. In Wegener’s theory of continental drift, Pangaea progressively split up as the continents detached themselves and “drifted” away. Wegener provided physical, fossil, geological, and climate evidence to support this theory; Fit of the continents Wegener noted that the shape of the continent’s coastlines appeared to match like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. Fossil evidence (Mesosaurus, Lystrosaurus, Glossopteris) Noted the occurrence of plant and animal fossils found on the match coastlines of South America and Africa. (Figure 1) Figure 1: As noted by Snider-Pellegrini and Wegener, the locations of certain fossil plants and animals on present-day, widely separated continents would form definite patterns (shown by the bands of colors), if the continents are rejoined. (from /Library/Giants/Wegener/wegener_4.html) Rock type and structural correlations Similar age, structure, and rock types on continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. i.e. Appalachian Mountains (North America) and mountains in Scotland and Scandinavia Paleoclimatic evidence Found dramatic climate changes on some continents. Most notable was the discovery of coal deposits (made of tropical plants) in Antarctica which led Wegener to conclude that t