In many articles online, geologists and geographers have described and depicted the theorized locations of all our continental plates with great detail and illustration, providing pictures, time-lapse videos, etc. as per Wegener's theory. But nowhere have I found online any article, paper, illustration, picture, or even a single comment, mention, or note talking about our continents' positions 10000 years ago, AKA, when the last ice age was just getting over. So please can someone answer this?
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2$\begingroup$ in 10 000 years the european and the american plates has moved about 250 meters(2,5 cm year) $\endgroup$– trond hansenCommented May 21, 2020 at 4:57
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$\begingroup$ related earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/13171/… $\endgroup$– trond hansenCommented May 21, 2020 at 5:03
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2$\begingroup$ Minor aside: Plate tectonics and Wegener's continental drift are not the same thing. $\endgroup$– David HammenCommented May 21, 2020 at 11:03
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1 Answer
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The reason that you have not seen any diagram showing the position of the continents 10K years before present (ybp) is that the plates move so slowly that there would not be a perceptual difference on the scale of a world map. The Atlantic is spreading about a half centimeter per year. So 10,000 years will have moved Europe away from North America by 5000 cm, or 50 meters.
An additional reason is that most models of continental drift have the sub-oceanic magnetic banding due to geomagnetic reversals as their guide for "recent" positions of the plates. The latest geomagnetic reversal, the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal, occurred 780K ybp. This is long before your 10K ybp point of interest and so any interpolated data would be suspect.
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2$\begingroup$ Though you would see some changes in the continental outlines, due to sea level changes. Maps are easily found on-line. $\endgroup$– jamesqfCommented May 21, 2020 at 17:55