How did Wegener prove continental drift?

How did Wegener prove continental drift?

Wegener supported his theory by demonstrating the biological and geological similarities between continents. South America and Africa contain fossils of animals found only on those two continents, with corresponding geographic ranges.

What force was Wegener looking for to explain how the continents moved?

Based on his polar experiences, Wegener suggested that the continents were like icebreaking ships plowing through ice sheets. The continents moved by centrifugal and tidal forces.

Who explained how the continents moved?

The realization that Earth’s land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift. He is shown here at the base camp for Johan Koch’s 1912-1913 Greenland expedition. one of the seven main land masses on Earth. the movement of continents resulting from the motion of tectonic plates.

What did Wegener do?

Wegener was a German meteorologist, geophysicist and polar researcher. In 1915 he published ‘The Origin of Continents and Oceans’, which outlined his theory of Continental Drift. Wegener was a member of four expeditions to Greenland. Wegener’s theory of Continental Drift was met with scepticism by many scientists.

What happened Wegener?

Wegener died in Greenland in November 1930 while returning from an expedition to bring food to a group of researchers camped in the middle of an icecap. Wegener had been 50 years of age and a heavy smoker, and it was believed that he had died of heart failure brought on by overexertion.

Why do you think the idea of moving continents took so long for the scientific community to accept?

The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.

What ended up happening to Wegener?

Wegener died in Greenland in November 1930 while returning from an expedition to bring food to a group of researchers camped in the middle of an icecap. He supplied the camp successfully, but there was not enough food at the camp for him to stay there.

How did Wegener come up with the continental drift hypothesis?

He suggested that Pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to their current positions. He called his hypothesis continental drift. Besides the way the continents fit together, Wegener and his supporters collected a great deal of evidence for the continental drift hypothesis.

What did Alfred Wegener do to the Earth?

Perhaps the best summary of Wegener’s revolutionary theory was provided by countryman Hans Cloos: “It placed an easily comprehensible, tremendously exciting structure of ideas upon a solid foundation. It released the continents from the Earth’s core and transformed them into icebergs of gneiss [granite] on a sea of basalt.

How did the Himalayas form according to Alfred Wegener?

Wegener said they formed when the edge of a drifting continent crumpled and folded—as when India hit Asia and formed the Himalayas. He also noted that when you fit Africa and South America together, mountain ranges (and coal deposits) run uninterrupted across both continents, writing:

How did Alfred Wegener come up with the name Pangaea?

By his third edition (1922), Wegener was citing geological evidence that some 300 million years ago all the continents had been joined in a supercontinent stretching from pole to pole. He called it Pangaea (all lands), and said it began to break up about 200 million years ago, when the continents started moving to their current positions.