What was the belief about earth’s crust and landforms before the theory of plate tectonics?

Continental drift

Explanation:

Before the theory of plate tectonics, was made by Abraham Ortelius in 1596, the American continent and the African continent, seem to fit like a puzzle.

With that observation the Continental drift was born, Abraham in his work Thesaurus Geographicus, said these continents were divided by earthquakes and floods.

Uranus and Neptune are primarily composed of, in this terminology, ices, not gas, they are increasingly referred to as ice giants and separated from the gas giants.