I know the whole idea of continental drift but I’m confused on how we know what past continents look like. I’ve seen so many YouTube videos of Time-lapses of what the continents were like in a span of hundred of millions of years. But they’re always incredibly detailed and it had me wondering how we know all this. I heard people say we can get an estimate what the continents were shaped like based on what directions their moving today. But that method can only take you so far right? Are all those maps of Pangea just guesses?
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The maps of Pangea may not be 100% accurate, but they are based on existing data. Things like you mentioned – current shape and movement. Plus things like geological data. Looking at the layers of the earth at the edge of each current continent can suggest/show where they were likely connected in the past. Using all of that data, and likely some I don’t even know about/understand, people with the right knowledge can make a very educated assumption what the continents looked like “back then”
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