What 4 pieces of continental drift did Alfred Wegener use?
Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.
What did the Fixists believe?
Fixists explained the fossil connection between continents by proposing isostatic land bridges that once connected the continents but later sank into the ocean. Wegener had seemingly compelling evidence that the continents once formed a supercontinent; however, he was missing a mechanism for which they moved.
How did Alfred Wegener discover continental drift?
Wegener noticed the similarity in the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once formed a supercontinent, Pangaea, which had split and slowly moved many miles apart over geologic time.
What is Alfred Wegener theory?
Alfred Wegener in Greenland. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s land masses are in constant motion. The realization that Earth’s land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift.
Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?
Why was Wegener’s theory forgotten? He could not explain how the continents could move. Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea floor spreading? because of subduction the Pacific Ocean.
Why was Wegener’s idea of continental drift rejected?
Wegener’s inability to provide an adequate explanation of the forces responsible for continental drift and the prevailing belief that the earth was solid and immovable resulted in the scientific dismissal of his theories.
What is the most important discovery of Alfred Wegener Why?
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth (German: Kontinentalverschiebung).
Why did scientist reject Wegener’s idea of continental drift?
This idea was quickly rejected by the scientific community primarily because the actual forces generated by the rotation of the earth were calculated to be insufficient to move continents.
What did Wegener wrong?
We now know that Wegener’s theory was wrong in one major point: continents do not plow through the ocean floor.
Is the idea of Wegener true?
The theory was proposed by geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912, but was rejected by mainstream science at the time. Scientists confirmed some of Wegener’s ideas decades later, which are now part of the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics (opens in new tab).
What was the major problem with Wegener’s ideas?
The main issue with Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory was he did not have a mechanism behind the drifting of continents. He had a substantial amount of evidence that made sense; nonetheless, without a driving force behind it, the scientific community simply discredited his entire idea.
Was Alfred Wegener’s body found?
On 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.
Are the continents still drifting?
The continents are still moving today. Some of the most dynamic sites of tectonic activity are seafloor spreading zones and giant rift valleys. In the process of seafloor spreading, molten rock rises from within the Earth and adds new seafloor (oceanic crust) to the edges of the old.