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Alfred Wegener first presented his hypothesis to the German Geological Society on 6 January 1912. His hypothesis was that the continents had once formed a single landmass, called Pangaea , before breaking apart and drifting to their present locations.
By the 1960s, scientists had amassed enough evidence to support the missing mechanism—namely, seafloor spreading—for Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift to be accepted as the theory of plate tectonics. Ongoing GPS and earthquake data analyses continue to support this theory.
Apr 24, 2024 · Alfred Wegener’s Continental Drift Hypothesis. Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) was a German scientist specializing in meteorology and climatology. His knack for questioning accepted ideas started in 1910 when he disagreed with the explanation that the Bering Land Bridge was formed by isostasy and that similar land bridges once connected the continents.
Alfred Wegener has been mischaracterised as a lone genius whose theory of continental drift met widespread rejection until well after his death. In fact, the main tenets of the theory gained widespread acceptance by European researchers already in the 1920s, and the debates were mostly about specific details.
Mar 7, 2024 · Alfred Wegener in Greenland. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's land masses are in constant motion. The realization that Earth's land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift. He is shown here in Greenland. Photograph from Pictoral Press.
Wegener said that continents move around on Earth’s surface and that they were once joined together as a single supercontinent. While Wegener was alive, scientists did not believe that the continents could move. THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IDEA. Find a map of the continents and cut each one out.
Nov 20, 2015 · 100 years of continental drift. One hundred years ago, Alfred Wegener laid the foundations for the theory of plate tectonics. Marco Romano and Richard L. Cifelli Authors Info & Affiliations. Science. 20 Nov 2015. Vol 350, Issue 6263. pp. 915 - 916. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6230.
