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Alfred Wegeners First Thoughts on the Continental Drift
The perception of the continental drift came to Alfred Wegener in 1910, when he was considering the map of the world, under the direct impression produced by the balance of the coastlines on either side of the Atlantic. At first, Wegener did not pay attention to his idea as he believed it to be improbable. -
Accidental Uncovering of Vital Information by Alfred Wegener
In 1911, Wegener stumbled upon reports, which led him to undertake examinations and uncover many things. Alfred concluded that the basic “obvious” supposition that the position of the continents had never altered must be incorrect . The continents had to have shifted. Wegener found out that South America must have lain alongside Africa and formed a unified block which was split in two; the two parts must then have become increasingly separated over a period of millions of years. -
Alfred Wegener releases his book "The Origin of the Continents and Oceans"
In 1915, Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) published his hypothesis of continental drift in his book The Origin of the Continents and Oceans. He was not the first to observe that certain continental coastlines fit together like pieces of a puzzle. When Alfred proposed his continental-drift hypothesis, he was aware of similar fossil remains that were found on different continents. -
The newly developed field of paleomagnetism proved that the continents had once been positioned differently
In the 1950s, the newly developed field of paleomagnetism (the study of Earth’s magnetic field) proved that the continents had once been positioned differently by uncovering certain minerals known to form in align-ment with Earth’s polarity that pointed in easterly or westerly directions instead of north or south. But until an adequate mechanism to move the continents was found, many scientists remained unconvinced. -
Harry Hess wrote a paper explaining a process that he called 'seafloor spreading'.
Then, in 1959, a U.S. Navy officer and Princeton geology professor named Harry Hess (1906–1969), who had used sonar during World War II to map vast areas of the Pacific bottom, wrote a paper explaining a process he called seafloor spreading: molten rock seeps up from the Earth’s interior through mid-ocean ridges (undersea mountain chains), spreads out to create new ocean floor, and then sinks back into the Earth’s interior through oceanic trenches. -
The Vine-Matthews-Morely hypothesis was released
Many events led geophysicist Fred Vine, and geologists Lawrence Morley and Drummond Matthews to propose the Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis in 1963: If new oceanic floor is continually being created at mid-ocean ridges, ocean-floor rocks should record past reversals of the magnetic field. -
The General Acceptance of The Continental Drift Theory.
By the late 1960's (approximately 1964) the vast majority of geologists and geophysicists were convinced that continental drift was a reality. Alfred Wegener, Harry Hess, and every other individual who contributed to the continental drift theory were finally accepted by the general society.
