what did alfred wegener believe

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What was Alfred Wegener's theory?

He hypothesized that all of the modern-day continents had previously been clumped together in a supercontinent he called Pangaea (from ancient Greek, meaning “all lands” or “all the Earth”). Over millions of years, Wegener suggested, the continents had drifted apart.

Why did Alfred Wegener believe in continental drift?

He was not the first or only person to think this, but he was the first to talk about the idea publicly. Wegener came up with this idea because he noticed that the coasts of western Africa and eastern South America looked like puzzle pieces. He wondered if they might have once fit together and then drifted apart.

What did Alfred Wegener believe about the Earth?

Pangaea Wegener was convinced that all of Earth's continents were once part of an enormous, single landmass called Pangaea. Wegener, trained as an astronomer, used biology, botany, and geology describe Pangaea and continental drift.

What are two ideas of Wegener's theory?

Wegener tentatively suggested two candidates: centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the Earth, and tidal-type waves in the Earth itself generated by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.

Did Wegener agree with continental drift theory?

The theory was proposed by geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912, but was rejected by mainstream science at the time. Scientists confirmed some of Wegener's ideas decades later, which are now part of the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics (opens in new tab).

What did Wegener find that he believed was evidence to support his theory?

Wegener supported his theory by demonstrating the biological and geological similarities between continents. South America and Africa contain fossils of animals found only on those two continents, with corresponding geographic ranges.

What were Wegener's 3 lines of evidence?

Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.

What were the 4 main evidence of continental drift?

The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones' locations.

How did Alfred Wegener support his theory about plate tectonics?

In addition to the fit of the continents and the fossil evidence, Wegener relied heavily on matching geological patterns across oceans, such as sedimentary strata in South America matching those in Africa (Fig.

What are the 2 fossils that Wegener used to support his theory?

Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were early ancestors of mammals that lived on land. Both of these animals were unable to swim at all. Their fossils have been found across South America, Africa, India, and Antarctica. Wegener thought that all of these organisms must have lived side by side.

What were Alfred Wegener's new ideas?

In 1912 he proposed that the continents we know today were once all attached in a single landmass he called PangaeaPangaeaPangaea or Pangea (/pænˈdʒiː. ə/) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › PangaeaPangaea - Wikipedia (Greek for "all earth"). They were surrounded by one global ocean, but then broke apart and somehow "drifted" to their separate places on the globe.

What are two reasons why scientists doubted Wegener's ideas?

Scientist argued against Wegener because it was a slow process. It was not possible for Wegener to measure how fast the continents moved. Which suggested that continents are in constant motion on the surface of Earth.

What is Alfred Wegener best known for?

German meteorologist and geophysicist Alfred Wegener was the first person to formulate a complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis. Pr...

What were Alfred Wegener’s contributions?

Wegener noticed the similarity in the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once formed a supe...

How did Alfred Wegener impact the world?

Wegener published his theory in full in 1915, but his contemporaries mostly found it implausible. By 1930 it had been rejected by most geologists,...

What was the last expedition to Greenland?

Wegener 's last Greenland expedition was in 1930. The 14 participants under his leadership were to establish three permanent stations from which the thickness of the Greenland ice sheet could be measured and year-round Arctic weather observations made. Wegener felt personally responsible for the expedition's success, as the German government had contributed $120,000 ($1.5 million in 2007 dollars). Success depended on enough provisions being transferred from West camp to Eismitte ("mid-ice") for two men to winter there, and this was a factor in the decision that led to his death. Owing to a late thaw, the expedition was six weeks behind schedule and, as summer ended, the men at Eismitte sent a message that they had insufficient fuel and so would return on 20 October.

What was Wegener's theory of continental drift?

From 1912, Wegener publicly advocated the existence of " continental drift ", arguing that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and had since drifted apart. He supposed that the mechanisms causing the drift might be the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation (" Polflucht ") or the astronomical precession. Wegener also speculated about sea-floor spreading and the role of the mid-ocean ridges, stating that "the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ... zone in which the floor of the Atlantic, as it keeps spreading, is continuously tearing open and making space for fresh, relatively fluid and hot sima [rising] from depth." However, he did not pursue these ideas in his later works.

Why did Wegener not defend his work?

Wegener was in the audience for this lecture, but made no attempt to defend his work, possibly because of an inadequate command of the English language.

Why did Wegener not accept his ideas?

Part of the reason Wegener's ideas were not initially accepted was the misapprehension that he was suggesting the continents had fit along the current coastline. Charles Schuchert commented:

How many Greenlanders returned to West Camp?

Twelve of the Greenlanders returned to West camp. On 19 October the remaining three members of the expedition reached Eismitte. There being only enough supplies for three at Eismitte, Wegener and Rasmus Villumsen took two dog sleds and made for West camp.

Why was the interest in Wegener's work so low?

Interest in this small publication was however low, also because of wartime chaos. By the end of the war Wegener had published almost 20 additional meteorological and geophysical papers in which he repeatedly embarked for new scientific frontiers. In 1917 he undertook a scientific investigation of the Treysa meteorite .

What was Alfred Wegener's motivation for creating the first continent?

His brother Kurt remarked that Alfred Wegener's motivation was to “reestablish the connection between geophysics on the one hand and geography and geology on the other, which had become completely ruptured because of the specialized development of these branches of science.”

Where was Alfred Wegener born?

Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin on November 1, 1880. He studied the natural sciences at the University of Berlin, receiving a doctorate in astronomy in 1904. He did not pursue a career in astronomy, however, but turned instead to meteorology, where the telegraph, Atlantic cable, and wireless were fostering rapid advances in storm tracking ...

What was the first thing that Wegener used to study the polar atmosphere?

During this expedition Wegener became the first to use kites and tethered balloons to study the polar atmosphere.

What did Wegener do when he returned to Marburg?

When he returned to Marburg, Wegener resumed work on continental drift, marshaling all the scientific evidence he could find to support his theory.

What was Wegener's most controversial book?

Using this pioneering interdisciplinary approach, Wegener wrote one of the most influential and controversial books in the history of science: The Origin of Continents and Oceans , published in 1915. Because of the First World War, Wegener's book went unnoticed outside Germany.

Who wrote the thermodynamics of the atmosphere?

In 1911, still only 30, Wegener collected his meteorology lectures into a book, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere, which soon became a standard text throughout Germany. After reading it, the distinguished Russian climatologist Alexander Woeikoff wrote that a new star had risen in meteorology.

Who was the first person to trace storm tracks over the polar region?

According to fellow meteorologist and Greenland explorer Dr. Johannes Georgi, Wegener was the first to trace storm tracks over the ice cap.

Who was the first person to overwinter on the ice cap?

In 1912, the year of his continental-drift presentations, Wegener again answered the siren call of Greenland. His four-man expedition "escaped death only by a miracle" while climbing a suddenly calving glacier on the northeast coast, then became the first to overwinter on the ice cap.

What does the orange on the map mean?

In the above map, orange indicates the fossil remains of Cynognathus, a Triassic land reptile. Dark blue indicates fossil remains of the freshwater reptile Mesosaurus.

What did Wegener do to demolishes?

Wegener began by demolishing the theory that large land bridges had once connected the continents and had since sunk into the sea as part of a general cooling and contraction of the Earth.

Why do continents move up and down?

Wegener also noted that the continents move up and down to maintain equilibrium in a process called isostasy. As an example he cited the sinking of Northern Hemisphere lands under the weight of continental ice sheets in the last ice age, and their rise since the ice melted some 10,000 years ago. Given the difference in density between continents ...

When did the continents break up?

He called it Pangaea (all lands), and said it began to break up about 200 million years ago, when the continents started moving to their current positions.

What happens when you fit Africa and South America together?

He also noted that when you fit Africa and South America together, mountain ranges (and coal deposits) run uninterrupted across both continents, writing:

How do mountain ranges form?

According to the cooling, contracting-Earth theory, they formed on the Earth's crust as wrinkles form on the skin of a drying apple. If this were so, however, they should be spread evenly over the Earth; instead mountain ranges occur in narrow bands, usually at the edge of a continent.

Who was the most influential person to explain Wegener's theory?

Perhaps the best summary of Wegener's revolutionary theory was provided by countryman Hans Cloos : "It placed an easily comprehensible, tremendously exciting structure of ideas upon a solid foundation. It released the continents from the Earth's core and transformed them into icebergs of gneiss [granite] on a sea of basalt. It let them float and drift, break apart and converge. Where they broke away, cracks, rifts, trenches remain; where they collided, ranges of folded mountains appear."

What did Wegener think of the climate puzzle?

Wegener thought continental drift was the key to these climatic puzzles, so he and Vladimir Koppen plotted ancient deserts, jungles, and ice sheets on paleogeographic maps based on Wegener's theory. Suddenly the pieces of the puzzles fell into place, producing simple, plausible pictures of past climates. Evidence of the Permo-Carboniferous ice-age era that peaked some 280 million years ago, for example, was scattered over almost half the Earth, including the hottest deserts. On Wegener's map, however, it clustered neatly around the South Pole—because Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India had once comprised a Southern Hemisphere supercontinent (Gondwanaland).

What was the reaction of the international geological community to Wegener's theory?

Except for a few converts, and those like Cloos who couldn't accept the concept but was clearly fascinated by it, the international geological community's reaction to Wegener's theory was militantly hostile. American geologist Frank Taylor had published a similar theory in 1910, but most of his colleagues had simply ignored it.

What was Wegener's main problem?

His major problem was finding a force or forces that could make the continents "plow around in the mantle," as one critic put it. Wegener tentatively suggested two candidates: centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the Earth, and tidal-type waves in the Earth itself generated by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.

Why didn't Wegener get a professorship?

Because of this abuse,Wegener could not get a professorship at any German university. Fortunately, the University of Graz in Austria was more tolerant of controversy, and in 1924 it appointed him professor of meteorology and geophysics.

What are the forces that displace continents?

The forces which displace continents are the same as those which produce great fold-mountain ranges. Continental drift, faults and compressions, earthquakes, volcanicity, [ocean] transgression cycles and [apparent] polar wandering are undoubtedly connected on a grand scale.

When was Wegener invited to a symposium?

In 1926 Wegener was invited to an international symposium in New York called to discuss his theory. Though he found some supporters, many speakers were sarcastic to the point of insult. Wegener said little. He just sat smoking his pipe and listening.

Was continental drift accepted by scientists?

The idea of continental drift was not accepted easily by the scientific establishment. Even though Wegener assembled many interlocking pieces of evidence to support his ideas, they were so radical that he was often ridiculed. Eventually, however, scientists made more observations, assembling the modern theory of plate tectonics.

Why was continental drift rejected?

However, his theory was rejected because of two reasons: The first reason was that his theory of continental drift was just too weak for most geologists to accept. Even though he believed the supercontinent that broke up into different continents moved, he did not have a clear explanation to how the continents moved.

Who suggested that the Earth was a one big supercontinent called Pangaea?

This is a great question. Alfred Wegener was a German scientist who suggested the theory of continental drift. His theory suggested that Earth was a one big supercontinent called Pangaea. The Pangaea broke up and drifted to form all those continents you see today.

Why did scientists reject Alfred Wegeners' theory of continental drift?

There were two reasons the scientific community rejected Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift, which attempted to explain how the major land masses of the earth had drifted to their present locations. First, Alfred Wegener was a German meteorologist by trade, his theoretical presentation was frowned upon by those actually in ...

Why was Alfred Wegener's theory frowned upon?

First, Alfred Wegener was a German meteorologist by trade, his theoretical presentation was frowned upon by those actually in the geophysical study of science. The second reason was Wegener had no feasible explanation for the vehicle his theory suggested. In other words, he had an interesting idea, but he couldn't actually explain how ...

What was the ocean floor thought to be?

Up until that time, the ocean floor had been thought to be a flat desert area underwater, devoid of mountain ranges, or other submerged topographical features . Hess' discovery eventually led to the theory of ocean floor spreading, which gave Wegeners theory a mechanism to employ. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team.

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Overview

Biography

Continental drift theory

Modern developments

Awards and honours

Selected works

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