[Answer] When did people begin to notice that coastlines of continents fit together like puzzle pieces?

When did people begin to notice that coastlines of continents fit together like puzzle pieces?

The speculation that continents might have ‘drifted’ was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 but his hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism.

Pangaea or Pangea (/ p æ n ˈ dʒ iː ə /) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago. In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass Pangaea was centred on the Equator and surrounded by …

From at least 1910 Wegener imagined the continents once fitting together not at the current shore line but 200 m below this at the level of the continental shelves where …

Abraham Ortelius (/ ɔːr ˈ t iː l i ə s /; also Ortels Orthellius Wortels; 14 April 1527 – 28 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer geographer and cosmographer conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World).Ortelius is often considered one of the founders of the Netherland…