Assuming that climate-controlling factors have not changed through time, then the current locations of fossils reflect the movement of continental masses. 200 million years ago they formed one continent, Pangaea. Paleogeographic and paleoclimatic evidence, including the similarity between previously joined edges of continents. Paleomagnetism is the study of magnetism in rocks . Paleomagnetism helps us to reconstruct the path of the continents after the breakup of Pangaea.
Basalt rocks contain accessory magnetic minerals, mainly magnetite and ilmenite.
These minerals are affected by magnetic lines of force. As lava cools, oxide minerals crystallize out of solution, and at a certain temperature magnetic minerals line up with the Earth's magnetic field. The dip is zero at the magnetic equator. There can only be ONE magnetic N pole and a problem exists that can only be solved by moving the continents, not the poles. We have so far only discussed data from the continents for continental drift.