| Continental Drift | See Floor Spreading | Plate Tectonics |
| Explained by | Put forward by Alfred Wegener in 1920s | Arthur Holmes explained Convectional Current Theory in the 1930s.Based on convection current theory, Harry Hess explained See Floor Spreading in the 1940s | In 1967, McKenzie and Parker suggested the theory of plate tectonics. Morgan later outlined the theory in 1968 |
| Aim | Climate Change | Climate Change | All Geological Activities |
| Theory | Explains the Movement of Continents only | Explains the Movement of Oceanic Plates only | Explains the Movement of Lithospheric plates that include both continents and oceans. |
| Style | One Cycle Theory | – | Two Cycle Theory |
| Forces for movement | Buoyancy, gravity, pole-fleeing force, tidal currents, tides, | Convection currents in the mantle drag crustal plates | Convection currents in the mantle drag crustal plates |
| Evidence | Apparent affinity of physical features, botanical evidence, fossil evidence, Tillite deposits, placer deposits, rocks of same age across different continents etc. | Ocean bottom relief, Paleomagnetic rocks, distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes etc. | Ocean bottom relief, Paleomagnetic rocks, distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes, gravitational anomalies at trenches, etc. |
| Drawbacks | Too general with silly and sometimes illogical evidence. | Doesn’t explain the movement of continental plates | ——————— |
| Acceptance | Discarded | Not complete | Most widely accepted |
| Usefulness | Helped in the evolution of convection current theory and seafloor spreading theory | Helped in the evolution of plate tectonics theory | Helped us understand various geographical features. |
