Wigner's ideas on continental drift were originally inspired by the similarities in the contours of the two sides of the Atlantic, especially the appearance of the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America. Was this a coincidence? Wigner didn't think so. In order to answer this question, as a meteorologist, he began to study unfamiliar geology and paleontology. Finally, in 1915, he published the book "The Origin of Land and Sea" based on the coincidence of the coastline on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the similarity of pre-Mesozoic geology and paleontology, which comprehensively and systematically elaborated on the "theory of continental drift."
After the end of World War II, the development of various earth exploration technologies, especially ocean exploration technology, greatly promoted the development of disciplines such as paleomagnetism, seismology, and marine geology. American geologist Hess and Dietz of the Naval Electronics Laboratory successively proposed the "seabed spreading theory" in 1960 and 1961, believing that mantle material rose on the mid-ocean ridge, creating a new ocean crust on its top, and gradually moving towards both sides and cooling. In 1963, Vain and Matthews linked seabed spreading to the reversal of the geomagnetic field, successfully explaining the seabed spreading theory, thus showing that continental drift was indeed happening. Subsequently, American scientist Morgan, British scientist Mackenzie and French scientist Le Pichon successively proposed the "theory of plate tectonics", which was a revolution in modern earth science.
According to the theory of plate tectonics, Pangaea began to rupture about 200 million years ago. At the beginning of the Cretaceous, South America and Africa split. Originally, the continental margins of the two continents (about 1000 meters isobath) were spliced together. Now, they have become the west coastline of Africa and the east coastline of South America, and the two can of course coincide with each other.