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Gli studenti utilizzano programmi di simulazione online per osservare come i continenti si siano spostati nel corso delle ere geologiche. Possono esplorare come la distribuzione delle terre emerse fosse differente milioni di anni fa e prevedere come potranno muoversi in futuro.

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How to Use the Concord Simulator for Plate Tectonics

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Esperimento in Laboratorio: Modello di Crosta Terrestre

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Esperimento in Laboratorio: Modello di Crosta Terrestre

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Utilizzando materiali come argilla e sabbia, gli studenti creano modelli che rappresentano la crosta terrestre. Simulano i movimenti tettonici per vedere come questi influenzano la formazione dei continenti e i fenomeni sismici.

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Gli studenti conducono ricerche sulla vita di Alfred Wegener e le prove che egli ha raccolto per supportare la sua teoria della deriva dei continenti. Ogni gruppo di studenti può presentare le proprie scoperte tramite una presentazione multimediale.

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News

Berlin Science Week 2024

When: 01.11.24 - 10.11.24
Where: different locations in Berlin
Who: Berlin Science Week

Short notices

SILBERSALZ Festival 2024

This year's SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival will take place in Halle (Saale) from 30 October to 3 November under the motto 'Shake well'. The programme includes many exciting discussion rounds, lectures, films, exhibitions and events on current and future-oriented topics. AWI Director Antje Boetius will be taking part in the panel discussion entitled 'Freedom of Science'. She will contribute her assessment and experience. More information.

Study describes hotspots in the marine nitrogen cycle

Nitrogen fixation in ocean eddies is an important component of the local nitrogen cycle in the western North Atlantic. In addition to local environmental conditions, the transport of nitrogen fixers from the more productive Mid Atlantic Bight to the nutrient-poor Atlantic Subtropical Gyre also promotes this process. This is one of the results published by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute together with international experts in the journal Nature Geoscience. To the publication

Database with AWI experts

Service for media and event organisers: Find the right contact here.

Find out more

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The Alfred Wegener Institute carries out research in the Arctic and Antarctic as well as in the high and mid latitude oceans. The institute coordinates German polar research and makes available to national and international science important infrastructure, e.g. the research ice breaker Polarstern and research stations like Neumayer Station III in the Arctic and Antarctic.

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Con l'aiuto di software di mappatura, gli studenti ricostruiscono l'aspetto del supercontinente Pangea e tracciano come si sia suddiviso nei continenti attuali.

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© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap Improve this map

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Gli studenti scrivono e interpretano scenette che rappresentano i movimenti dei continenti e le teorie scientifiche alla base della loro separazione. Questo aiuta a solidificare la loro comprensione attraverso l'arte drammatica.

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Kuala Lumpur Engineering Science Fair -KLESF

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Gli studenti studiano diverse prove fossili provenienti da continenti diversi per comprendere la loro distribuzione e come supportano la teoria della deriva dei continenti. Utilizzano risorse online e software per esaminare campioni virtuali.

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Debate: Pro e Contro della Deriva dei Continenti

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Debate: Pro e Contro della Deriva dei Continenti

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Organizza un dibattito in classe dove gli studenti discutono le variabili pro e contro della teoria della deriva dei continenti secondo le conoscenze scientifiche attuali.

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Utilizza documentari storici per portare gli studenti in un viaggio nel tempo riguardo alla composizione dei continenti e i cambiamenti tettonici attraverso le ere.

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Plate Tectonic Theory—History of How it was Discovered (Educational)

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Gli studenti creano e gestiscono un blog dove postano articoli, immagini e video sui vari aspetti della deriva dei continenti, promuovendo la condivisione del sapere e delle risorse utili.

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Continental drift describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time. Today, the theory of continental drift has been replaced by the science of plate tectonics.

The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were "drifting" across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other. He called this movement continental drift.

Wegener was convinced that all of Earth's continents were once part of an enormous, single landmass called Pangaea.

Wegener, trained as an astronomer, used biology, botany, and geology describe Pangaea and continental drift. For example, fossils of the ancient reptile mesosaurus are only found in southern Africa and South America. Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile only one meter (3.3 feet) long, could not have swum the Atlantic Ocean. The presence of mesosaurus suggests a single habitat with many lakes and rivers.

Wegener also studied plant fossils from the frigid Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. These plants were not the hardy specimens adapted to survive in the Arctic climate. These fossils were of tropical plants, which are adapted to a much warmer, more humid environment. The presence of these fossils suggests Svalbard once had a tropical climate.

Finally, Wegener studied the stratigraphy of different rocks and mountain ranges. The east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa seem to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and Wegener discovered their rock layers "fit" just as clearly. South America and Africa were not the only continents with similar geology. Wegener discovered that the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, for instance, were geologically related to the Caledonian Mountains of Scotland.

Pangaea existed about 240 million years ago. By about 200 million years ago, this supercontinent began breaking up. Over millions of years, Pangaea separated into pieces that moved away from one another. These pieces slowly assumed their positions as the continent we recognize today.

Today, scientists think that several supercontinents like Pangaea have formed and broken up over the course of the Earth's lifespan. These include Pannotia, which formed about 600 million years ago, and Rodinia, which existed more than a billion years ago.

Tectonic Activity

Scientists did not accept Wegener's theory of continental drift. One of the elements lacking in the theory was the mechanism for how it works-why did the continents drift and what patterns did they follow? Wegener suggested that perhaps the rotation of the Earth caused the continents to shift towards and apart from each other. (It doesn't.)

Today, we know that the continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics.

The continents are still moving today. Some of the most dynamic sites of tectonic activity are seafloor spreading zones and giant rift valleys.

In the process of seafloor spreading, molten rock rises from within the Earth and adds new seafloor (oceanic crust) to the edges of the old. Seafloor spreading is most dynamic along giant underwater mountain ranges known as mid-ocean ridges. As the seafloor grows wider, the continents on opposite sides of the ridge move away from each other. The North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, for example, are separated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) per year.

Rift valleys are sites where a continental landmass is ripping itself apart. Africa, for example, will eventually split along the Great Rift Valley system. What is now a single continent will emerge as two-one on the African plate and the other on the smaller Somali plate. The new Somali continent will be mostly oceanic, with the Horn of Africa and Madagascar its largest landmasses.

The processes of seafloor spreading, rift valley formation, and subduction (where heavier tectonic plates sink beneath lighter ones) were not well-established until the 1960s. These processes were the main geologic forces behind what Wegener recognized as continental drift.

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Continental drift describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time. Today, the theory of continental drift has been replaced by the science of plate tectonics.

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Ogni studente assume il ruolo di uno scienziato futuristico che discute le predizioni sui movimenti dei continenti nei prossimi milioni di anni, incoraggiando il pensiero critico e la creatività.