Why do the continents move?

The earth's crust is a little like a conveyor belt. New crust is constantly welling up in some spots, such as the Mid Atlantic Ridge and sinking down in others, such as the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific ocean. read more

Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other, thus appearing to "drift" across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. read more

The drift of the continents is probably caused by the division of the Earth's crust into a number of gigantic 'plates'. These plates move very, very slowly but with tremendous power. The edges of the plates, called margins, appear as lines of weakness in the Earth's crust and cause upsets on the surface. read more