Plate tectonics is the theory that states that the crust is made of great moving plates driven by powerful forces inside the earth. The idea that the earth's continents are moving is not new. A German scientist names Alfred Wegener proposed that at first the continents were connected, and that they have drifted apart from each other during the earth's long history. As evidence, Wegener pointed to certain identical fossils found in Africa, Australia, and South America. Now the modern theory of plate tectonics supports the idea of continental drift.
New crust is created at the mid-ocean ridge.
The continents are carried along with the moving crustal plates. Unlike the original theory of continental drift, today there is strong specific evidence for the plate tectonics hypothesis. One piece of evidence is found in the increasing age of the rocks in the sea floor as one moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. The original observations leading to the belief in continental drift are now part of the theory of plate tectonics. Assemble the plates like a jigsaw puzzle.