Continental drift orogeny at the boundaries of convection cells. By 1967, barely two decades after discovery of the mid-oceanic rifts, and a decade after discovery of the striping, plate tectonics had become axiomatic to modern geophysics. In addition, Marie Tharp, in collaboration with Bruce Heezen, (who initially ridiculed Marie's observations that her maps confirmed continental drift theory), provided essential corroboration, using her skills in cartography and seismographic data, to confirm the theory. Evidence for the movement of continents on tectonic plates is now extensive. Similar plant and animal fossils are found around the shores of different continents, suggesting that they were once
Continental drift his own. In the mid-20th century, the theory of continental drift was referred to as the "Taylor-Wegener hypothesis", although this terminology eventually fell out of common use. Alfred Wegener first presented his hypothesis to the German Geological Society on 6 January 1912. His hypothesis was that the continents had once formed a single landmass, called Pangaea, before breaking apart and drifting to their present locations. Wegener was the first to use the phrase "continental drift" (1912, 1915) (in German "die Verschiebung der Kontinente" – translated into English in 1922) and formally publish the hypothesis that the continents had somehow "drifted"