Alfred wegener what was he famous for

Although continental drift explained many of Wegener's observations, he could not find scientific evidence to make a complete explanation of how continents move. The British geologist Arthur Holmes championed the theory of continental drift at a time when it was unfashionable. He proposed in that the Earth's mantle contained convection cells that dissipated radioactive heat and moved the crust at the surface.

His Principles of Physical Geology , ending with a chapter on continental drift, was published in However, most Earth scientists and palaeontologists did not believe Wegener's theory and thought it was foolish. Some critics thought that giant land bridges could explain the similarities among fossils in South America and Africa. Others argued that Wegener's theory did not explain the forces that would have been needed to move continents to such great distances.

Wegener thought that the forces that moved the continents could be caused by the rotation of the Earth and stellar precession and that same forces made earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. During the s, in the mid-atlantic ridge discoveries of sea-floor spreading and magnetic reversal proved that Wegener's theory was real and led to the theory of plate tectonics, though his proposed causes were mistaken.

After a long but unsuccessful search for a university position in his native Germany, he accepted a professorship at the University of Graz in Austria. Wegener's frustration and long delay in gaining a university post perhaps stemmed from his broad scientific interests.

As noted by Johannes Georgi, Wegener's longtime friend and colleague, "One heard time and again that he had been turned down for a certain chair because he was interested also, and perhaps to a greater degree, in matters that lay outside its terms of reference -- as if such a man would not have been worthy of any chair in the wide realm of world science.

Ironically, shortly after achieving his academic goal, Wegener died on a meteorologic expedition to Greenland. Georgi had asked Wegener to coordinate an expedition to establish a winter weather station to study the jet stream storm track in the upper atmosphere. Wegener reluctantly agreed. Wegener often complained of their narrow-mindedness. In Wegener was finally offered a professorship in meteorology. In he sailed from Denmark as the leader of a major expedition to Greenland -- his fourth and last.

He celebrated his fiftieth birthday on November 1, but shortly afterwards the team got separated, and he was lost in a blizzard. His body was found halfway between the two camps. In Hess proposed the mechanism of sea-floor spreading , which would explain how the continents moved. His ideas were largely ignored at the time they were developed, but today they are widely accepted by the scientific community. As part of his research, Wegener also took part in several journeys to Greenland, where he studied the atmosphere and ice conditions.

During his childhood, Wegener's father ran an orphanage. Wegener took an interest in physical and earth sciences and studied these subjects at universities in both Germany and Austria. He graduated with a Ph. He briefly served as an assistant at the Urania Observatory in Berlin. While earning his Ph. From to he went on an expedition to Greenland to study polar weather.

In Greenland, Wegener established a research station where he could take meteorological measurements. This expedition was the first of four dangerous trips that Wegener would take to the icy island. The others occurred from to and in and Shortly after receiving his Ph. During his time at the university, Wegener developed an interest in the ancient history of the Earth's continents and their placement. He had noticed, in , that the eastern coast of South America and the northwestern coast of Africa looked as if they were once connected.

In , Wegener also came across several scientific documents stating there were identical fossils of plants and animals on each of these continents. He eventually articulated the idea that all of the Earth's continents were at one time connected into one large supercontinent.

In , he presented the idea of "continental displacement"—which would later become known as "continental drift"—to explain how the continents moved toward and away from one another throughout the Earth's history.