 In order to illustrate an apparent polar wander path, let's say we've got the earth here And its poles are set up just the way they are today so The magnetic field lines are going like that and let's say we've got a continent sitting here And it looks like this We'll color it in And so we'll say there's a volcano on this continent and it's a composite volcano So a composite volcano spews out lava and it gradually it gradually builds up The mountain side with these lava flows like this So here's the lava flows coming down the side and let's say we're a geologist And we're gonna go to this volcano And we're gonna take some samples of These lava flows so we'll zoom in on these samples here and the uppermost Sample the most recent lava flow. We'll call that this green one here and Then let's say underneath that green one. There's a more orange yellow Lot of flow and then under that There's this oldest one here Now we have a magnetometer and we can try to figure out which way all these lava flows thought north was when they were formed And they cooled so let's say the red one points sort of in this direction and The yellowish one is maybe pointing like this and the green one is recognizing the field of today So it's just pointing north like that Now there's two possible explanations for how this could have occurred And so we'll draw those right here All right Explanation one is that the poles moved around and the continent stayed in the same place So in that case we've got a continent sitting here and When the most recent lava formed this green stuff The pole was right up here where it is today But back when this thing was emitting the yellow lava The pole was in a slightly different place the pole might have been more like over here and The oldest lot of flow is recording a pole. That's more like in that direction So in this case we have what we can call an apparent polar wander path and over time From back then to the present the pole kind of moved in that direction Now the other possibilities of the continent moved, but the pole stayed in the same place so in that case The green continent of today Would be here All right, and so When this lava froze It was pointing north toward the north pole Back when this yellow lava formed If the pole was in the same place then the continent would have to maybe be over here somewhere like this Right because it's lava froze Pointing north but then over time when this continent moved to its present position This lava still frozen in place is now pointing in a different direction over here That isn't where north is anymore Right if we go back even farther and time toward the red lava Then the continent must have been sitting at a position sort of like this So when it's lava formed it was pointing north right Then as the continent went through this motion this lava was still frozen in place So the directions pointing isn't in the same place that the north is now And so we can construct a path an apparent wander path if you will of the continents And we can see that the continent Must have gone sort of like this see how this is now in the opposite direction To the one we constructed before