Today, when people want to cross the ocean and reach another continent, they have to take the plane for eight or more hours or the ship for a few days . However, if people were born millions of years ago, they could easily accidentally cross the border of two continents. Because according to the theory of continental drift, centuries ago, today's continents were one complete piece and called Pangea. (Sandner, 506-507) The theory of continental drift is a theory first proposed by the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915. This theory suggests that parts of the Earth's crust called continents were slowly drifting over a liquid core. He didn't come up with this idea on a whim, there's actually some solid evidence to support this theory. For example, the borders of the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa appear to coincide on a world map. Additionally, you can find fossils of similar animals and plants along the different coasts of the continents, such as the Mesosaurus fossil was found in both South Africa and Brazil. (Continents reunited [This Dynamic Earth, USGS].) Not only do fossils prove this theory, but living animals themselves are found on two different continents. Furthermore, Wegener discovered that the same rocks and mountain ranges begin on a continent and end on a coast; but on another continent, beyond the ocean, there are similar rocks and mountain ranges appear. For example, people have found rocks of the same type and rocks in Greenland, Ireland, Scotland and Norway, places that are very far apart. Last but not least, based on climate evidence, scientists subsequently pointed out that there are glacial streaks in South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Ant... middle of paper... in hot spots rather than at plate boundaries. The Hawaiian Islands are an example of a chain of shield volcanoes. Compared to composite volcanoes, the magma of shield volcanoes is much thinner, so less gas will be trapped, which leads to a less explosive eruption. Rift eruptions describe when magma erupts along fissures in the lithosphere. Rift eruptions are much less violent than other volcanic eruptions, but release a large amount of lava. Rift eruptions are common on mid-ocean ridges such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Sandner, 532-534) Maybe earthquakes and volcanic activities seem really scary to people and always bring destructive harm to people, they are natural phenomena that we should learn to understand and accept. It is impossible for people to avoid them all completely, but we can use our knowledge to predict them and minimize the damage.