A German meteorologist and polar researcher who proposed continental drift, the idea that today's continents were once a single landmass that broke apart and drifted to their present positions. Dismissed by most geologists in his own time for want of a mechanism, he died on a Greenland expedition in 1930, three decades before seafloor spreading vindicated the core of his idea. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Death YearDied in November 1930 during a return trek across the Greenland ice sheet; the cited article does not give an exact calendar date. Death PlaceGreenland ice sheet, near Eismitte 1 Defining ContributionA meteorologist by training, proposed in 1912 that the continents had once been joined in a single landmass and were slowly drifting apart. The idea was rejected in his lifetime for lacking a mechanism, and became the accepted foundation of plate tectonics only after seafloor spreading supplied one in the 1960s. 1 Notable WorkThe Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915) 1 Connections
Concepts Credited
Why this is disputed. Wegener is credited with developing continental drift into a comprehensive, evidence-based theory published in 1912, but the core idea that continents had once fit together or moved was proposed by others earlier, including Antonio Snider-Pellegrini in 1858 and Frank Bursley Taylor, whose continental-creep model was presented in 1908 and published in 1910.
Source Continental Drift (Wikipedia)
Source Pangaea (Wikipedia)
Precursor To
Wegener's rejected continental drift is the idea Hess's seafloor spreading gave a mechanism to, decades later.
Source Harry Hess (Wikipedia)
Works In
Source Alfred Wegener (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Source Wikidata: Alfred Wegener
Sources
1. Alfred Wegener (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
Wikidata: Alfred Wegener
Alfred Wegener (Wikidata)
P27 (country of citizenship) [1]
citizen of Germany
P19 (place of birth) [1]
born in Berlin
P20 (place of death) [1]
died in Greenland
View the SourceDissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Concepts Credited: Continental Drift
Antonio Snider-Pellegrini illustrated in 1858 how the Atlantic coastlines could be closed together into a single landmass, and Frank Bursley Taylor proposed a mechanism of continental creep in 1908 (published 1910), the first to link continental motion to mountain building, attributing the Himalaya to the Indian subcontinent's collision with Asia. Wegener's distinct and larger contribution, the reason the theory carries his name, was assembling geological, paleontological and paleoclimatic evidence into a single systematic, testable case in 1912.
A dissenting reading, from Antonio Snider-Pellegrini and Frank Bursley TaylorContinental Drift (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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