Which of the following provide evidence that south america, africa, antarctica, and australia were once together as one supercontinent? select the three correct answers.
cratons match across the edges of continents.
glacial deposits and scratches in the bedrock from an ice sheet match in distant regions.
icy glaciers covered south america, africa, antarctica, and australia as one supercontinent over the north pole.
fossils of marsupials were originally the same across south america and australia.
vast deposits of coal formed in regions with ancient deserts.
mountain chains match up where south america collided with australia to form pangaea.

Option (1), (2) and (4)

Explanation:

The continents were all together once, which was commonly known a the Pangaea. The Pangaea then slowly started to break forming different sub continents namely the South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. There are evidences that suggests that these continents were earlier attached together. Some of them, are as follows-

(a) These continents shared cratons whose edges are similar and perfectly fits with one another, suggesting that they were together in the geological past.

(b) Numerous ice age events has taken place during the time of Pangaea super-continent, that produced the scratches over the surface of continents. These scratches along with glacial deposits are still found at many places on earth. This also provides a good evidence that these continents were all together once.

(c) The fossils of marsupials have been found at many places in South America and Australia, that belonged to the mammalian group. They were extensively present in these two continents in the past.

Hence, the correct answers are option (1), (2) and (4).

The evidences that South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia were once together as one supercontinent include:

It should be noted that South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia were once a supercontinent. This supercontinent was called Gondwanaland.

The facts to support these include cratons matching across the edges of continents. Also, glacial deposits and scratches in the bedrock from an ice sheet match in distant regions. Fossils of marsupials were also the same for the continents.

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from almost the creation of the first true maps of the earth, people started seeing how continents would be able to fit together.   in particular, people noticed that south america fits almost exactly into africa.

you should be aware that while world maps were around early in the 1600’s and better defined by the end of the 1700’s, those maps were not ‘public’ but were treated as state secrets.   and so it was not till much later that the broader ‘science’ community had access to good quality and accurate world maps.

get the whole story here…

it is now known that most of the major continental masses can be fit together in a jigsaw process.   in fact we now know that the continents were indeed once all joined together as one land mass – the supercontinent of pangaea.

if you look at most world maps you will ponder how this is evidence, as the continents really don’t appear to ‘fit’ together very well.   what you need to understand is that the vast majority of maps are drawn using a map projection that has the north and south poles (which are points) are a line the width of the map at the top and bottom.   this means that the map distorts the true shape of the earth’s land and oceans as you love closer to the poles.     some other map projections distort less, but have the map shape looking like segments of an orange.   see here for a range of map projections.   check out the way greenland changes size in each!

what is more remarkable, is the next piece of evidence when added to the shape of continents.

location of mountains and fossils

what is remarkable, when you reassemble all the continents together, the ancient mountain ranges (many now eroded to their cores) and the location of rock types and fossils all match up.

did u get the answer? /? ? / me