Question

Which three continents contain coal fields that provide evidence for continental drift?

A) Africa, Antarctica, and North America
B) Eurasia, Africa, and South America
C) Antarctica, South America, and Africa
D) South America, North America, and Eurasia

Answer 1

C) Antarctica, South America, and Africa

Coal beds and similar plant fossils (e.g., Glossopteris) of the same age occur in these southern continents. Coal requires warm, swampy conditions, so coal in Antarctica indicates it once lay in a warmer latitude — evidence that the continents were once joined (continental drift/Pangaea).