Who introduced the continental drift theory

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• Known For: Wegener was a German scientist who developed the idea of continental drift and Pangaea. • Born: November 1, 1880 in Berlin, Germany • Died: November 1930 in Clarinetania, Greenland • Education: University of Berlin (Ph.D.) • Published Works: Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere (1911), The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1922) • Spouse: Else Koppen Wegener (m. 1913-1930) • Children: Hilde, Hanna, Sophie Early Life Alfred Lothar Wegener was born on November 1, 1880, in Berlin, Germany. During his childhood, Wegener's father ran an orphanage. Wegener took an interest in physical and earth sciences and studied these subjects at universities in both Germany and Austria. He graduated with a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Berlin in 1905. He briefly served as an assistant at the Urania Observatory in Berlin. Continental Drift Shortly after receiving his Ph.D., Wegener began teaching at the University of Marburg in Germany, and in 1910 he drafted his "Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere," which would later become an important meteorological textbook. During his time at the university, Wegener developed an interest in the ancient history of the Earth's continents and their placement. He had noticed, in 1910, that the eastern coast of South America and the northwestern coast of Africa looked as if they were once connected. In 1911, Wegener also came across several scientific documents stating there were identical fossils of plants and animals on each of these conti...

Wegener first presented his ideas in 1912 and then published them in 1915 in his controversial book, "The Origins of Continents and Oceans ," which was received with great skepticism and even hostility. He revised and published subsequent editions of his book in 1920,1922, and 1929. The book (Dover translation of the 1929 fourth German edition) is still available today on Amazon and elsewhere. Wegener's theory, although not completely correct, and by his own admission, incomplete, sought to explain why similar species of animals and plants, fossil remains, and rock formations exist on disparate lands separated by great distances of sea. It was an important and influential step that ultimately led to the development of the theory of There were also alternative theories to counter Wegener’s continental drift theory. A commonly held theory to explain the presence of fossils on disparate lands was that there was once a network of land bridges connecting the continents that had sunk into the sea as part of a general cooling and contraction of the earth. Wegener, however, refuted this theory maintaining that continents were made of a less dense rock than that of the deep-sea floor and so would have risen to the surface again once the force weighing them down had been lifted. Since this had not occurred, according to Wegener, the only logical alternative was that the continents themselves had been joined and had since drifted apart. In addition, many of the geologists who were We...

This is how the western hemisphere of the Earth may have appeared 200 million years ago, with the ... [+] supercontinent of Pangea stretching from pole to pole. getty In January 1912, the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener presented in a public lecture for the first time his idea of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea, from which all modern continents split apart. Wegener's continental drift theory was received with mixed feelings or outright rejected by the geological community. Only 50 years later his idea will influence a new kind of theory - modern Earth’s molten core heats the rock at the bottom of the mantle, causing it to rise and forming a mantle plume, pushing aside parts of Earth’crust. On the Earth's surface, cooling slabs of crust sink back in subduction zones to the bottom of the mantle. This circular flow is called mantle convection, and over millions of years, it drives the motions of tectonic plates, including the continents embedded in the slabs of crust. As the continents drift around, they occasionally assemble into supercontinents. The motion of continental plates likely began about 3.5 billion years ago. The first supercontinent we know of formed 3 billion years ago, as islands of primitive continental crust clustered together to form the first continent on Earth. Called Ur, its remains make up parts of Australia, India, and Madagascar. Over the next 500 million years, additional land was formed through volcanic action, clustering with Ur to form Kenor...

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Sir Arthur Holmes (1890-1965), the British geologist who contributed to our understanding of Earth's age. Photo courtesy of University of Edinburgh, Department of Geology and Geophysics. He was the first earth scientist to grasp the mechanical and thermal implications of mantle convection, and he widely applied the newly-developed method of radioactive dating to minerals in the first attempt to quantitatively estimate the age of the Earth. Holmes was fortunate that the phenomenon of radioactivity was discovered during his years as a graduate student at London’s Imperial College of Science. Holmes had come there to study physics, but switched to geology before graduating in 1910. Meanwhile, in 1905, English physicist Ernest Rutherford had suggested that the energy emitted by radioactive minerals in the form of particles and rays could be used to date the minerals. Called radioactive dating, this technique measures the rate of decay of certain unstable atoms, such as uranium, contained within minerals. Using this new technique, Holmes was able to determine the age of minerals and thus the rocks they are in, and in 1913, he formulated the first quantitative geological time scale. He estimated the age of the Earth to be 1.6 billion years, far older than was believed at the time. Holmes revised this estimate throughout his life, as measuring techniques improved. In 1953, an American geochemist, Clair C. Patterson, finally established the true age of the Earth at 4.55 billion ye...

GG101 Birth of a Theory GEOLOGY/GEOPHYSICS 101 Program 6 THE BIRTH OF A THEORY Plate tectonics is a revolution in Earth Science, a revolution so great that it may turn out be be equal in magnitude to the realization that the Earth is spherical, and, also, the realization that the Earth is like another planet and goes around the sun in its orbit. Plate tectonics is a unifying theory, which explains many features and processes that we find on the Earth. It explains the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes. It explains mountain building and rock deformation on the continents, and even, in fact, describes the shapes and locations of the continents. It also helps us understand the youthful age of the sea floor and the unusual distribution of fossil and living organisms on the continents. In fact, plate tectonics actually combine two other theories, continental drift and seafloor spreading into a comprehensive global theory. It's curious that the continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean fit together so well, almost like a jigsaw puzzle. In fact, if I move South America and Africa back together, I see that they fit together almost perfectly. The black line that runs through the center of the two continents represents the distribution of a particular type of fossil called "Mesosauras," which was a not particularly noteworthy reptile, which was found only on these two locations and nowhere else in the world. Is it just a coincidence that the continents fit together so w...

Photo Source: I selected renown Geologist Arthur Holmes, because of his geological contributions to the scientific community. Holmes continued the works of Wagener elaborating the continental drift theory, which is now known as plate tectonics. Holmes also revolutionized the way we carbon date within the Geology Field through radioactive dating. In addition, Holmes was a renowned scholar at several Universities in England. Still today scientist base their geological theories and methods from Arthur Holmes life works and achievements. Holmes theoretical thinking was beyond his time and while his peers occasionally opposed his theories, Holmes work was subsequently proven to be on point. Biographical Information: British Geologist Arthur Holmes was born in 1890, in the small town of Gateshead United Kingdom where he spent his childhood. At the age of 17, Arthur Holmes attend Gateshead Grammar School before enrolling into the Royal College of Science or The Imperial College London, where he studied Physics. In Arthur’s second year of school he was introduced to geology, which later became his passion. After graduating from college Holmes found work in Africa as a mineral prospector, which he had little success. Within six months of arriving in Africa Holmes became extremely ill with malaria from mosquitos. Meanwhile, Holmes family and friends where told that Holmes had died in Africa, which they mourned his thought to be death. Within a few months Holmes gathered enough stren...

IRIS operates, provides, and maintains geoscience instrumentation IRIS facilitates seismological and geophysical research by operating and maintaining open geophysical networks and providing portable instrumentation for user-driven experiments. Instrumentation support includes engineering services, training, logistics, and best practices in equipment usage. All data collected with IRIS instrumentation are made freely and openly available. IRIS is a consortium of over 125 US universities dedicated to the operation of science facilities for the acquisition, management, and distribution of seismological data, and for fostering cooperation among IRIS members, affiliates, and other organizations in order to advance seismological research and education. Your browser does not support the video tag. Who were the major supporters of plate-tectonic theory? This animation gives an overview of the most-recognized proponents (and opponents) of Plate Tectonics Theory up into the 1960's, with the discoveries that helped form the theories. In the year 1596 cartographer Abraham Ortelius noted that the coastlines of Africa and South America appeared to fit together, compelling him to propose that the continents had once been joined but were pulled apart by "earthquakes and floods." And yet, the theory of plate tectonics represents a fairly young science. The "Father of Plate Tectonics", Alfred Wegener proposed "Continental Drift" in 1912, but was ridiculed by fellow scientists. It would tak...

Continental drift is a phenomenon which explains how the earth’s continents move on the surface of the ocean bed. Abraham Ortelius was the first geographer who proposed this phenomenon in 1596. The theory was independently developed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, but it was rejected due to lack of mechanism (which was introduced by Arthur Holmes). The continental drift theory was replaced by the plate tectonic theory which illustrates how the continents drift. The Continental Drift Theory The hypothesis of continental drift was developed during the early parts of the twentieth century by Wegener. He believed that all eight continents were once a single supercontinent before separating. A number a geologists denounced his hypothesis after he published it in his book about the origin of oceans and continents in 1915. One of the reasons is that his theory had no credible mechanism. Another problem with Wegener's proposal was the fact that he stated that the velocity of continental drift was 8.202ft/year which is quite high (currently the acceptable rate of continental drift is 0.082ft/year). Wegner was a geographer and not a geologist, and other geologists believed that he did not have sufficient evidence. Although his observations about the rocks and fossils were correct, Wegener was wrong on various issues. He believed that the continents plowed through the crust of the ocean. Even though the continental drift hypothesis was discarded, it did help introduce the idea of continen...