Continental Drift

Well, I'm writing a blog, this isn't something that I've done before but, I'll give it a shot. I'm writing about the theory of continental drift and the person responsible for it. The person responsible for this theory is Alfred Wegener(1880-1930). He was a geophysicist and meteorologist born in Germany, as well a published writer having his book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" published in 1912. Alfred Wegener also coined the term "Pangaea" in a expanded version of his book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" published 1915.

Wegener developed his theory of continental drift as he studied maps of the coast lines of South America and Africa looking for a possible land bridge connecting them. After looking at the maps he noted that "The east coast of South America and the West coast of Africa seem to fit together like the piece's of a big puzzle." Wegener tried to support his theory by studying the fossil records. In the fossil record Wegener noted that many of the same plants and animal species were found on different continents. He used this information to support his theory of continental drift.

When Alfred put his findings in a expanded version of his 1912 book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans"(1915) it wasn't well received in the scientific community due to a lack of solid scientific evidence. Point being he couldn't explain how the continents got to their present places, he thought maybe they ploughed through the sea floor but couldn't explain why.

Although Alfred Wegener wasn't able to convince the scientific community of his theory of continental drift in the early 1900's he laid the ground work for what we know today as plate tectonics.