Alfred Wegener was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of continental drift. His theory was rejected by most geologists during his lifetime but was revived in the 1960s as part of plate tectonics.
Facts
FieldMeteorology and geophysics 1 Notable WorkDie Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans) 1 Connections
Conducted
Wegener assembled the matching-coastline, fossil-taxa (Glossopteris, Lystrosaurus) and rock-strata evidence between 1912 and 1915 in support of his continental drift proposal.
Precursor To
Wegener's continental drift proposal, put forward between 1912 and 1915, correctly identified a former single landmass and drew on real evidence, matching coastlines, matching fossil taxa such as Glossopteris and Lystrosaurus found across separated continents, and matching rock strata, but he could not supply a physical mechanism for how continents moved and the idea was rejected in his lifetime; the seafloor spreading and magnetic reversal evidence gathered between 1959 and 1963 by researchers including Harry Hess supplied that missing mechanism, and plate tectonics was formally defined by 1965 to 1967, confirming Wegener's core insight with the physics he lacked rather than replacing it outright.
Source Plate Tectonics (Wikipedia)
Proposed
Source Alfred Wegener (Britannica)
Works In
Source Alfred Wegener (Britannica)
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Germany, nationality there.
Sources
1. Alfred Wegener (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia Britannicaopening biographical sentence
Alfred Wegener (born November 1, 1880, Berlin, Germany-died November 1930, Greenland) was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis.
article body, 1915 publication paragraph
he published it in full in 1915 in his most important work, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans).
- Works In: Geology
- Proposed: Continental Drift
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