Page:The origin of continents and oceans - Wegener, tr. Skerl - 1924.djvu/137

theory. However much one may have thought about the thorny question of the cause of the glacial period, it must in any case be admitted that the displacement theory does not make the comprehension of the phenomenon more difficult, but more simple. Still another interesting detail of the phenomena of the Quaternary glaciation may be mentioned.
Fig. 20.—Reconstruction of the continental blocks for the Great Ice Age. According to A. Penck, the Pleistocene snow-line lay 500 to 600 m. lower in Tasmania than in New Zealand. This is very difficult to understand, because of the present nearly equal latitudes of the two localities. The displacement theory removes this difficulty, for, according to it, Tasmania then lay considerably farther south than New Zealand.