Science: Geopoetry Becomes Geofact

It is apparent from a glance at the map: the earth's continents can be made to fit together like parts of a giant jigsaw puzzle. Yet for years most scientists stoutly resisted the conclusion that some time in the remote past, the earth's land masses began splitting up and drifting apart—a theory known as "continental drift." Sheer nonsense, they insisted. No known forces could possibly have propelled huge continents across the earth's dense, basaltic crust.

Discoveries of the past few years have now turned skeptics into believers. Scientists have not only uncovered the basic...

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