Search results
People also ask
Who was Alfred Lothar Wegener?
When did Alfred Wegener propose continental drift?
How did Alfred Wegener contribute to science?
What did Alfred Wegener do in 1912?
Sep 17, 2024 · 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.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- German meteorologist and geophysicist Alfred Wegener was the first person to formulate a complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis. Pr...
- Wegener noticed the similarity in the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once formed a supe...
- Wegener published his theory in full in 1915, but his contemporaries mostly found it implausible. By 1930 it had been rejected by most geologists,...
Alfred Lothar Wegener (/ ˈ v eɪ ɡ ən ər /; [1] German: [ˈʔalfʁeːt ˈveːɡənɐ]; [2] [3] 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
- Early Life
- Continental Drift
- Later Life
- Death
- Legacy
- Sources
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 serv...
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 p...
From 1924 to 1930, Wegener was a professor of meteorology and geophysics at the University of Graz in Austria. At a 1927 symposium, he introduced the idea of Pangaea, a Greek term meaning "all lands," to describe the supercontinent that he believed existed on the Earth millions of years ago. Scientists now believe that such a continent did exist—it...
In 1930, Wegener took part in his last expedition to Greenland to set up a winter weather station that would monitor the jet stream in the upper atmosphere over the North Pole. Severe weather delayed the start of the trip and made it extremely difficult for Wegener and the 14 other explorers and scientists with him to reach the weather station. Eve...
For most of his life, Wegener remained dedicated to his theory of continental drift and Pangaea despite receiving harsh criticism from other scientists, many of whom believed the oceanic crust was too rigid to permit the movement of tectonic plates. By the time of his death in 1930, his ideas were almost entirely rejected by the scientific communit...
Bressan, David. “May 12, 1931: Alfred Wegener's Last Journey.” Scientific American Blog Network, 12 May 2013.Oreskes, Naomi, and Homer E. LeGrand. "Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth." Westview, 2003.Wegener, Alfred. "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." Dover Publications, 1992.Yount, Lisa. "Alfred Wegener: Creator of the Continental Drift Theory." Chelsea House Publishers, 2009.- Amanda Briney
Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930), the originator of the theory of continental drift. (Photograph courtesy of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.) Wegener obtained his doctorate in planetary astronomy in 1905 but soon became interested in meteorology; during his lifetime, he participated in several ...
Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift – the idea that Earth’s continents move. Despite publishing a large body of compelling fossil and rock evidence for his theory between 1912 and 1929, it was rejected by most other scientists.
Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) became internationally known for his heavily disputed theory of continental drift, which he formulated as early as 1912. Yet his exploration of Greenland, as well as his related work in glaciology and aerology, also makes up a considerable part of his multifarious scientific career as a meteorologist and geophysicist.
One of the most important contributions to the development of plate tectonic theory was Alfred Wegener's 1915 publication of 'The origin of continents and oceans' which outlined his theory of Continental Drift. Wegener supported his argument with five lines of evidence.
