Plate Tectonics - A Scientific Revolution
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The great scientific revolution in geology happened in 1912, when a German meteorologist named Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) proposed the idea of "Continental Drift". |
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Reaction to Wegener's theory was almost uniformly hostile, and often exceptionally harsh and scathing; Dr. Rollin T. Chamberlin of the University of Chicago said, "Wegener's hypothesis in general is of the footloose type, in that it takes considerable liberty with our globe, and is less bound by restrictions or tied down by awkward, ugly facts than most of its rival theories." |
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| Wegener was studying climatic changes around the world and while working on his research he noticed the perfect "fit" of the coastal margins of South America and Africa that could be used as an indicator that these two continents could have been united at one point. | |
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| Studying a bit further Wegener also noticed there were some similarities in the geology and mineralogy in some continents. | |
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Brooklyn College - Geology Department