1. F.B. Taylor first proposed the concept of horizontal displacement of continents in 1908 to explain the distribution of folded mountains from the Tertiary period. 2. He proposed that two large landmasses, Laurasia and Gondwanaland, had drifted away from the poles towards the equator due to tidal forces from the Moon. 3. This poleward movement of continents explained the formation of mountain ranges like the Himalayas, Alps, and Rockies, as the lands collided during their drift across the Earth's surface.

2. 1. The Term DRIFT was first put forward by ABRAHAM
ORTELIUS who was a Dutch map maker in 1596
2. In 1620 FRANCIS BECON gave a concept of drifting in
his book entitled NOVUM ORGANUM.
3. In 19th century ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
theorized that land bordering of west coast of Africa and
east coast of south america were joined once.
4. Antonio Snider presented his views about ‘drift’ in the year
1858 in France in his book entitled “ CREATION ET SES
MYSTERES DEVOILES”
5. Main purpose behind the postulation of ‘drift hypothesis’
of Snider was to explain the similarity of the fossils of the
coal seams of carboniferous period in North America and
Europe.

3. 1. F.B, Taylor postulated his concept of
‘horizontal displacement of the
continents’ in the year of 1908 but it
could be published only in the year
1910.
2. AIM: The main purpose of his
hypothesis was to explain the problems
of the origin of the folded mountains of
tertiary period.
3. In fact, F.B. Taylor wanted to solve the
peculiar problem of the distributional
pattern of tertiary folded mountains.

4. The concept of Taylor, thus, is considered to be first attempt in the field of
continental drift
HYPOTHESIS:
• The north-south arrangement of the Rockies and the Andes of the western
margins of the North and South Americas and west – east extent of the Alpine
mountains (Alps, Caucasus, Himalayas etc.) posed a serious problem before
Taylor which needed careful explanation.
• He could not find any help from the ‘contraction theory’ to explain the
peculiar distribution of tertiary folded mountains and hence he propounded
his ‘drift or displacement theory’
DRIFT – A slow movement from one place to another
place.

6. According to Taylor, continents were displaced in two ways:-
•Equator ward movement,
•Westward movement but the driving force responsible for both
types of movement was tidal force of the moon.
According to Taylor continents moved towards the equator. The
main driving force of the continental drift was tidal force.

7. Taylor started from cretaceous period.
According to him there were two land masses during
cretaceous period.
1. Lauratia
2. Gondwanaland
Both were located near the north and south poles
respectively.
He further assumed that the continents were made of
sial which was practically absent in the oceanic crust.

8. Lauratia started moving away from the North
Pole because of enormous tidal force of the moon
towards the equator in a radial manner.
 This movement of land mass resulted into
tensional force near the North Pole which caused
stretching, splitting and rupture in the landmass.
 Consequently, Baffin Bay, Labrador Sea and
Davis Strait were formed.

9.  The displacement of the Gondwanaland from the South Pole towards the
equator caused splitting and disruption and hence the Gondwanaland was split
into several parts.
Consequently, Great Australian Bight and Ross Sea were formed around
Antarctic Continent.
 Arctic sea was formed between Greenland and
Siberia due to equator ward movement of Lauratia.
Atlantic and Indian oceans were supposed to have
been formed because of filling of gaps between the
drifting continents with water.
 Taylor assumed that the landmasses began to move
in lobe form while drifting through the zones of lesser
resistance.
Thus, mountains and island arcs were formed in the
frontal part of the moving lobes.

10.  The Himalayas, Caucasus and Alps are considered to have been
formed during equator ward movement of the Lauratia and
Gondwanaland from the north and south poles respectively while the
Rockies and Andes were formed due to westward movement of the
land- masses.

11. EVALUATION
According to A. Holmes neither tidal force nor any external force can
drift the continents apart and can help in the formation of mountains.
The responsible force must come from within the earth.
 F.B. Taylor’s main aim was to explain the origin of the tertiary folded
mountains and hence he made the continents to move at a very large
scale. In fact, some sort of horizontal movement of the land masses was
essential for the origin of mountains but the displacement of land masses
up to 32-64 km would have been sufficient enough for the purpose.
 The mode of drift as suggested by Taylor has also been erroneous.
 If the tidal force of the moon was so enormous during cretaceous
period that it could displace the landmasses for thousands of kilometers
apart then it might have also put a break on the rotatory motion of the
earth and thus the rotation of the earth might have stopped within a year.