Table of Contents
Who is the scientist that first suggested continental drift?
Wegener was the first to use the phrase “continental drift” (1912, 1915) (in German “die Verschiebung der Kontinente” – translated into English in 1922) and formally publish the hypothesis that the continents had somehow “drifted” apart.
Why was Alfred Wegener’s continental drift theory rejected?
Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory was largely rejected. The primary reason for its rejection was his inability to provide a mechanism by which the continents could move.
What did Wegener and hypothesis of continental drift propose?
Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift – the idea that the Earth’s continents move over hundreds of millions of years of geologic time – long before the idea was commonly accepted.
Why is continental drift so important?
Continental drift squashes and changes the continents so much that it is very hard to work out their early history. Continental drift is still happening today and is important because it causes volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis.
What were the problems with the theory of continental drift?
The main problem with Wegener’s hypothesis of Continental Drift was the lack of a mechanism. He did not have an explanation for how the continents moved. His attempt to explain it using tides only made things worse. But both Galileo and Darwin had serious flaws in their theories when they were first presented.
Who first proposed the theory of continental theory?
The first truly detailed and comprehensive theory of continental drift was proposed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist. Bringing together a large mass of geologic and paleontological data, Wegener postulated that throughout most of geologic time there was only one continent, which he called Pangea.
Who proved continental drift?
In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that parts of the Earth’s crust slowly drift atop a liquid core.