Wegener

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Alfred Wegener was born on January 11, 1880, in
Berlin, Germany. His father was director of an
orphanage.
He died 50 years later, November 1930, in
Greenland. He and a fellow scientist froze to
death while attempting to return to their base
camp.
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Wegener grew up in Germany, studying in Berlin
and Heidelberg, Germany, and Innsbruck, Austria.
He was an astronomer, geophysicist,
meteorologist, and climatologist, as well as an
Arctic explorer.
As a meteorologist, he pioneered the use of
balloons to study and teach air circulation.
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Wegener and his brother Kurt flew hot air
balloons.
In 1906 when he was 26, he and Kurt stayed aloft
in a hot air balloon for more than 52 hours,
breaking a world record.
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During World War I, Wegener was drafted into the
German army but was soon wounded in combat.
He spent the rest of the war serving in the Army
forecasting service.
During his long bed-ridden convalescence, Wegener
developed his ideas on continental drift which
stemmed from his curiosity about the way certain
coastlines seem to fit together like jigsaw
puzzles.
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In December 1910 Wegener wrote to his future
wife, Doesn't the east coast of South America
fit exactly against the west coast of Africa, as
if they had once been joined? This is an idea
I'll have to pursue."
In 1915, Wegener published
The Origin of Continents and Oceans,
his main contribution to the scientific community.
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The book was the first work to suggest the theory
of continental drift and plate tectonics.
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The idea was not new. It had been suggested by a
Dutch cartographer, Abraham Ortelius, who
suggested that one large continent had been
ripped apart by natural disasters.
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Wegener hypothesized that all present continents
were originally one vast land mass, over 300
million years ago.
He called the supercontinent Pangaea, Greek for
all lands.
Pangaea
225 million years ago
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Wegener proposed that the landmass gradually
separated and drifted apart into several
continents.
225 million years ago
200 million years ago
135 million years ago
65 million years ago
Present day
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Unlike his predecessors who also suspected that
present continents resulted from continental
drift, Wegener offered evidence to support his
theory.
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Evidence 1 the way certain continents fit
together like a jigsaw (coast of Brazil and
Africas Gulf of Guinea).
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Evidence 2 the presence of coal deposits in
South Pole regions
Evidence 3 fossils of identical plants and
animals found on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean
Evidence 4 matching rock strata in Appalachian
Mountains of North America with Scottish Highlands
Evidence 5 fossils of tropical plants found on
the Arctic island of Spitsbergen
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Unfortunately, most of Wegeners ideas were
rejected with considerable hostility until the
early 1960s.
He continued to lecture and argue that continents
had changed over time and were still in the
process of changing.
Alfred Lothar Wegeners geological theory of
plate tectonics is now considered one of the most
important and far-reaching theories of all times.
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In 1912, the year of his continental-drift
presentations, Wegener made his second trip to
Greenland. His four-man team became the first to
overwinter on the ice cap. The following spring,
they barely survived the longest crossing of the
great ice sheet ever made, trekking 750 miles of
barren snow with ice rising to heights of 10,000
feet.
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During 1906 to 1930, Wegener made 4 polar
expeditions to Greenland.
One goal was to measure the thickness of arctic
ice using new techniques.
Another initiative was to discover and calculate
the rate of drift of Greenland.
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This is one of the last photographs of Wegener
taken during his final expedition in Greenland.
Wegener (left) and an Innuit guide
photo courtesy USGS
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In 1980 the Alfred Wegener Institute
for Polar and Marine Research was founded in
Bremerhaven, Germany.
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Bibliography
Kaufman, Yoram. On the shoulders of giants.
(date). Online. Availablehttp//earthobserva
tory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/Wegener/
Watson, J. Alfred Lothar Wegener moving
continents. (1999 May 5). Online. Availableh
ttp//pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/wegener.html
Modified from 2004 Plano ISD