Alfred Wegener, around 1925

Alfred Lothar Wegener (Berlin, November 1, 1880 – Greenland, November 2 or 3, 1930) was a German interdisciplinary scientist and meteorologist, who became famous for his theory of continental drift ("Kontinentalverschiebung" or "die Verschiebung der Kontinente" in his words). This article is about the capital of Germany. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Plates in the crust of the earth, according to the plate tectonics theory Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earths continents relative to each other. ...

Career

Wegener had early training in astronomy (Ph.D., University of Berlin, 1904). He became very interested in the new discipline of meteorology (he married the daughter of famous meteorologist and climatologist Wladimir Köppen) and as a record-holding balloonist himself, pioneered the use of weather balloons to track air masses. His lectures became a standard textbook in meteorology, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere. Wegener was part of several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation, when the existence of a jet stream itself was highly controversial. On his last expedition, Alfred Wegener and his companion Rasmus Villumsen went missing in November 1930. Wegener's body was found on May 12, 1931. His suspected cause of death was heart failure through overexertion. For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... There is no institution called the University of Berlin, but there are four universities in Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Technical University of Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin) Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin) This is... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... // Meteorology (from Greek: μετέωρον, meteoron, high in the sky; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. ... Wladimir Peter Köppen (Russian: Владимир Петрович Кёппен) (born September 25, 1846 in Saint Petersburg, Russia — died June 22, 1940 in Graz, Austria) was a Russian born geographer, meteorologist, climatologist and botanist of German descent. ... A hot air balloon is prepared for flight by inflation of the envelope with propane burners. ... Rawinsonde weather balloon just after launch. ... A geographical pole is either of two fixed points on the surface of a spinning body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body spins. ... For other uses, see jet stream (disambiguation). ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Continental Drift

Browsing the library at the University of Marburg, where he was teaching in 1911, Wegener was struck by the occurrence of identical fossils in geological strata that are now separated by oceans. He then noticed that the continents on a globe fit together like a jigsaw. The accepted explanations or theories at the time posited land bridges to explain the fossil anomalies; animals and plants could have migrated between fixed separate continents by crossing the land bridges. But Wegener was increasingly convinced that the continents themselves had shifted away from a primal single massive supercontinent, which drifted apart about 180 million years ago, to judge from the fossil evidence.^[1] Wegener used land features, fossils, and climate as evidence to support his hypothesis of continental drift. Examples of land features such as mountain ranges in Africa and South America lined up; also coal fields on Europe matched up with coal fields in North America. Wegener noticed that fossils from reptiles such as Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus were found in places that are now separated by oceans. Since neither reptile could have swam great distances, Wegener inferred that these reptiles had once lived on a single landmass that split apart. University of Marburg - Department of Social Sciences and University library The old university The University of Marburg (German: Philipps-Universität Marburg Philips University, Marburg), was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (usually called the Magnanimous, although the updated meaning haughty is sometimes given) as the... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ... Animated map exhibiting the worlds oceanic waters. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In geology, a supercontinent is a land mass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. ... Mega-annum, usually abbreviated as Ma, is a unit of time equal to one million years. ...

From 1912 he publicly advocated the theory of "continental drift", arguing that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have drifted apart. 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Plates in the crust of the earth, according to the plate tectonics theory Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earths continents relative to each other. ...

In 1915, in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), Wegener published the theory that there had once been a giant supercontinent, which, in later editions, he named "Pangaea" (meaning "All-Lands" or "All-Earth") and drew together evidence from various fields. Expanded editions during the 1920s presented the accumulating evidence. The last edition, just before his untimely death, revealed the significant observation that shallower oceans were geologically younger. Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Pangaea (disambiguation). ... The 1920s they were sexy referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ...

Wegener on Greenland, winter of 1912-1913.

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Theory of centrifugal force

Alfred Wegener also came up with a theory to explain continental drift, although it was in error. His theory of continental drift proposed that centrifugal force moved the heavy continents toward the equator as the Earth spun. He thought that inertia, from centrifugal movement combined with tidal drag on the continents (caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon) would account for continental drift. This article is about inertia as it applies to local motion. ...

Reaction

In his work, Wegener presented a large amount of circumstantial evidence in support of continental drift, but he was unable to come up with a convincing mechanism. Thus, while his ideas attracted a few early supporters such as Alexander Du Toit from South Africa and Arthur Holmes in England, the hypothesis was generally met with skepticism. The one American edition of Wegener's work, published in 1924, was received so poorly that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists organized a symposium specifically in opposition to the continental drift hypothesis. Also its opponents could, as did the Leipziger geologist Franz Kossmat, argue that the oceanic crust was too firm for the continents "simply to plow through". By the 1930's, Wegener's geological work was almost universally dismissed by the scientific community and remained obscure for some thirty years. Alexander Logie du Toit (March 14, 1878 – February 25, 1948) was a South African geologist. ... Arthur Holmes (January 14, 1890 – September 20, 1965) was a British geologist. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ... The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (or AAPG) is currently the worlds largest professional geological society with over 30,000 members as of 2004. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ... Franz Kossmat ( 22 August 1871 in Vienna – 1 December 1938 in Leipzig) was an Austrian-German geologist, for twenty years the director of the Geological Survey of Saxony under both the kingdom and the subsequent German Republic. ...

In the 1950s and 1960s, several developments in geology, notably the discoveries of seafloor spreading and Wadati-Benioff zones, led to the rapid resurrection of the continental drift hypothesis and its direct descendant, the theory of plate tectonics. Alfred Wegener was quickly recognized as a founding father of one of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century. Age of oceanic crust. ... Subduction zones mark sites of convective downwelling of the Earths lithosphere. ... The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ...

Awards and honors

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, was established in 1980 on his centenary. It awards the Wegener Medal in his name.^[2] The Wegener impact craters on both Mars and the Moon, as well as the asteroid 29227 Wegener and the peninsula where he died in Greenland (Wegener Peninsula near Ummannaq, 71°12′00″N, 51°50′00″W), are named after him.^[3] The Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research is a scientific organization located in Bremerhaven, Germany. ... Bremerhaven is a city in the federal state of Bremen, Germany. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... There is more than one crater named Wegener: Wegener (Lunar crater) Wegener (crater on Mars) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Tycho crater on Earths moon. ... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ... This article is about Earths moon. ... For other uses, see Asteroid (disambiguation). ...

See also

Plates in the crust of the earth, according to the plate tectonics theory Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earths continents relative to each other. ... For other uses of Gondwana and Gondwanaland, see Gondwana (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era. ... For other uses, see Pangaea (disambiguation). ... The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ... Age of oceanic crust. ... In geology, a supercontinent is a land mass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. ... Roberto Mantovani (* March 25, 1854 in Parma, † January 10, 1933 in Paris) was an violinist and scientist from Italy. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html Alfred Wegener (1880-1930)
2. ^ http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/News/Print_Products/PDF/252-265_Kap12.pdf Alfred Wegener Institute, 2005 Annual report, page 259
3. ^ JPL Small-Body Database Browser

Further reading

• Wegener, Alfred (1966). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. New York: Dover. - (Translated from the fourth revised German edition by John Biram)

• Wegener, Alfred (1968). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. London: Methuen. - (Translated from the fourth German edition by John Biram with an introduction by B.C. King)

• Wegener, Elsie (Editor, with the assistance of Dr. Fritz Loewe) (1939). Greenland Journey, The Story of Wegener’s German Expedition to Greenland in 1930-31 as told by Members of the Expedition and the Leader’s Diary. London: Blackie & Son Ltd.. - (Translated from the seventh German edition by Winifred M. Deans)

External links

• Wegener Institute website (English)
• USGS biography of Wegener
• Wegener biography at Pangaea.org
• Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) - Biographical material

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Plates in the crust of the earth, according to the plate tectonics theory Continental drift refers to the movement of the Earths continents relative to each other. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...