Alfred Lothar Wegener 18801930

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Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930)

• Continental Drift

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Astronomy,geology, climatology, meteorology

• Ph.D astronomy -U of Berlin in 1904
• wrote a textbook used in Germany.
• 1906 Greenland-polar air circulation
• tutor - U of Marburg
• Greenland again 1912-1913
• 1915 Army weather forecasting service
• 1924 professor meteorology and geophysics --U of
  Graz, in Austria.

photograph taken in Greenland 1913
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Balloonist

• Set record for longest time in a hot air balloon
  with brother Kurt
• pioneered the use of balloons to track air
  circulation

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Husband

• Married 1913- Else Köeppen
• Born 1 February 1892, daughter of Wladimir
  Köppen, a well-known meteorologist and
  climatologist
• She died 27 August 1992

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soldier

• Drafted in 1914 and wounded twice in World War I,
  Wegener finished the war in the Army weather
  forecasting service

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student

• at the University of Marburg in 1911, read a
  scientific paper on fossils of identical plants
  and animals found on opposite sides of the
  Atlantic.
• noticed the close fit between the coastlines of
  Africa and South America.
• read about rocks and mountain chains that matched
  up on separate continents

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Continental Drifttheory

• Fit of the continents
• Matching fossils
• Matching rock formations
• Climate change

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Fit of the continents

• Once large mass
• Pangaea all Earth
• Fit is better at continental shelf
• Shape, fossils, rocks, and glacier evidence
  matches

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Fossil record

• Mesosaurus
• A small reptile
• Glossopteris
• A tropical fern

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Rock formations

• mountain chains on one continent continue to
  continents across the ocean.
• EX Appalachian Mountains of North America match
  mountain ranges in Greenland and Scotland.
• EX Mineral deposits in Africa match up with
  those in South America

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Climate

• evidence of glaciers in southern Africa and South
  America.
• fossils of tropical plants are found in areas
  that have colder climates (such as Antarctica).

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Wegener presented his ideas

• Utter, ded rot, said the President of the
  American Philosophers Association
• Wegener could not explain HOW the continents
  moved. He thought they might drift on the
  Earths crust or plow through it.
• He did suggest the idea of ISOSTACY

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Last expedition to Greenland

• Spring 1930 leader of research team

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The Events

• Sept-Oct Wegener 2 others made 40 day trip to
  take supplies to Eismitte, 250 miles inland
• They celebrated Wegeners 50th birthday there

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Nov 2

• Rasmus Villumsen made return trip with Wegener
• A man named Lowe stayed at the camp

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• When Wegener, Lowe, and Villumsen failed to
  return, those at the base camp assumed they had
  decided to overwinter at Eismitte.
• In April, they sent out a search party.
• 118 miles inland the searchers came upon a pair
  of skis stuck upright in the snow, with a broken
  ski pole lying between them.
• May 12, 1931, they found Wegener's body. It was
  fully dressed and lying on a reindeer skin and
  sleeping bag stitched into two sleeping bag
  covers. Wegener's eyes were open, and the
  expression on his face was calm and peaceful,
  almost smiling.
• Rasmus Villumsen obviously buried Wegener with
  great care and respect, then presumably pressed
  on for the base camp, only to disappear into the
  white wilderness. The faithful Greenlander's body
  was never found.

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The final piece of evidence

• About 20 years after Wegeners death, scientists
  such as Harry Hess used ships, such as the Glomar
  Challenger, equipped samples from the ocean floor
  to find the evidence that Wegener lacked
• Continental Drift is caused by seafloor spreading