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Sep 17, 2024 · Alfred Wegener was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who proposed the continental drift hypothesis in 1915. He argued that all the present-day continents had once formed a single supercontinent, Pangaea, that broke apart and drifted apart over geologic time.
- 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 Wegener (1880-1930) was a climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. He is best known for his theory of continental drift, which proposed that the continents move around the Earth, and for his expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation.
- Early Life
- Continental Drift
- Later Life
- Death
- Legacy
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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.Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) was a meteorologist and geophysicist who proposed the theory of continental drift and the existence of Pangaea. He also made several expeditions to Greenland, where he died in 1930.
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Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who proposed the controversial theory of continental drift in 1912. He also explored Greenland, studied glaciology and aerology, and faced skepticism and criticism for his ideas.
Oct 19, 2023 · The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other.
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.)
Jun 10, 2024 · Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) earned a PhD in astronomy at the University of Berlin in 1904, but he had always been interested in geophysics and meteorology and spent most of his academic career working in meteorology.
