Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift

Just as Galileo Galilei had hundreds of years earlier, Alfred Wegener challenged the scientific world with a theory that could change everything science knew about the geomorphology of the earth’s surface and the formation of continents. He put forth the idea of a moving Earth – where the continents had once been a single landmass, and they had, over millions of years, drifted apart to create the familiar profiles of the continents that are recognized today.

Born in Berlin in 1880, Wegener was a natural scientist. He received a doctorate in astronomy at age twenty-four, even though that wasn’t the skill set he decided to use. He was a meteorologist who successfully mapped storms and studied Arctic climates while on research trips to Greenland. By 1912 he had developed a hypothesis about the existence of a supercontinent and the breakup of that huge landmass, to form the separate continents, occurring over a vast span of time (Bressen, 2012). In 1915 he published The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Wegner, 1966). His book solved the mystery of prehistoric land bridges, as well as addressing evidence about the radically different climates in ancient times. Wegener found a succinct solution to all these geological and meteorological problems. The continents weren’t always in the positions they are now. Even though Wegener had mountains of fossil record evidence, his theory was not easily accepted by large portions of the scientific community. Scholars did not want to throw out what they already knew, so they attacked Wegener and his theory (Hughes, n.d.).

Despite the evidence and his conclusions, Wegener hadn’t figured out everything that his theory required to make it rock solid. Detractors cited the lack of a force that would make the giant land masses move. They focused on the lack of conclusive evidence. Wegener himself had little to say, except that the real explanation would be years in the future. Because the force needed to move the continents would have to be stronger than the rotation of the Earth, Wegener’s proposed notion that it was a centrifugal force from the Earth itself was moving the continents. He also speculated that the moon’s gravitational pull was shifting the landmasses, a notion that simply just did not hold up when put to the test (Hughes, n.d.).

Wegener used mountains of evidence to substantiate his theory. Some of the most undeniable proof came from the fossils that were found in different regions of the Earth. Rather than using the ancestors of recognizable creatures of today’s world, Wegener proved his point using ancient organisms, that were built to survive in a very specific climate and had died out due to the change over time caused by the moving continents and shifting climates. The fern, Glossopteris had prospered in parts of the supercontinent Pangaea that eventually made up parts of the southern tips of the world, as well as Antarctica itself. Mesosaurus was a freshwater reptile, that could not have existed simultaneously in South Africa and the southern part of South America is they were separate continents separate.

Alfred Wegener perished in Greenland, on the ice cap in 1930. A consequence of a failed expedition due to a lack of planning, his body lay there still, decorated by an iron cross that his friends had erected some years later. Even though at the time of his death much of the scientific community still did not believe in his theory, his works would become more and more appreciated as time went on. Today he is recognized as a champion and a pioneer of a scientific movement that could not have been possible without him.

References

Bressan, D. (2012). Continental drift! Scientific American. Retrieved from http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/01/06/january-6-1912-continental-drift/

Hughes, P. (n.d.). Alfred Wegener. Earth observatory. Retrieved from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Wegener/

Wegner, A. (1966). The origin of continents and oceans. (J. Biram, Trans.) New York, NY: Dover.