He was, of course, roundly mocked by his German colleagues, but the abuse grew much worse in 1922 when his book was translated into English. The son of an evangelical minister, Wegener became an evangelist for his beliefs. (It means “All the Earth” in Greek) He said that over a period of 300 million years the landmases had ever so gradually moved apart due to “continental displacement.” (Today geologists believe that in 250 million years the continents will once again coalesce into a mega-continent, Pangaea Ultima.) He postulated the continents were once one land mass which he named Pangaea. Upon being discharged and while recuperating, he followed up his pamphlet in 1915 with a slender volume further detailing his conclusions. He was shot twice-once in the arm and again in the neck. He shared his suspicions with his future father-in-law, a noted climatologist, writing “If it turns out that sense and meaning are now becoming evident in the whole history of the Earth's development, why should we hesitate to toss the old views overboard?"īeing a speedy worker, the next year in 1912, Wegener published a lengthy treatise Die Heraushebung der Großformen der Erdrinde (Kontinente und Ozeane) auf geophysikalischer Grundlage " (The Geophysical Basis of the Evolution of the Large-Scale Features of the Earth’s Crust (Continents and Oceans). “A conviction of the fundamental soundness of the idea took root in my mind,” he wrote. What’s more, they both shared the same flatworm parasites! For example, marsupials in Australia and South America looked similar. He discovered a great many plants and animals (and especially fossils) showed remarkable similarities across various continents. His investigations revealed the coasts of South America and Africa had the same types of limestone formations, and the ocean floors off of both coasts had contours suggesting they had once been closer together. He found time for this after going on yet another expedition to Greenland (the longest ice cap crossing up until then, spending the winter on the ice and traveling 750 miles) and after going for military training in the German army. This wasn’t the first time a scientist (or thousands of school children) had noticed this, but Wegener did research. He also noticed that North America and Europe appeared as though they could nestle together, too, if Greenland fit between them. He thought it remarkable that it looked as though both continents once fit together. Wegener looked at the spread that depicted Africa and South America.
(In 1906 he and his brother set a new world’s record for the longest balloon flight, remaining aloft for 52 hours.) He also helped figure out how the Earth is put together.Īt Christmas in 1911, a friend was showing off one of his presents-a lavish world atlas. He wasn’t satisfied with being a meteorologist, astronomer, physicist, and an arctic explorer and balloonist. Alfred Wegener was a together kind of guy.
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