![]() Only after World War II did completely new data-especially from modern deepsea exploration and from research into the earth’s ancient magnetic field-lead to a more coherent synthesis, “plate tectonics”, which,, has dominated discussion of the continents and oceans, earthquakes and volcanoes, and the formation of the great mountain chains.Īlthough many details of this theory, too, are disputed, it provides a much more consistent and complete picture than Wegener was able to sketch. A number of geological and geophysical arguments in its favor turned out to be unsound, and during his lifetime Wegener was unable to win acceptance for his theory, either in Europe or America-not least because as an “outsider” he was not taken seriously by many geologists. In many respects, the verification of Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift was as problematic as its formulation was revolutionary. After Wegener’s hypothesis, climatic changes in geologic time now also appeared in a new light: In this field Wegener’s collaborative work with his father-in-law, the climatologist Wladimir Köppen, would be particularly important. Seldom has a new set of ideas about the origin of the earth’s crust, mountain ranges, and oceans had such a revitalizing effect as did Wegener’s theory of continental drift. This hypothesis made it possible to solve many different geological and geophysical problems. This idea, which became known as “continental drift,”* was not completely new, but Wegener was the first to develop it in depth. ![]() In 1912 he published, for the first time, his revolutionary hypothesis that the continents are not fixed but rather have been slowly wandering during the course of earth history. His true and lasting importance, however, is found in an entirely different field. Another feat of physical endurance-although perhaps more trivial-was the world record in ballooning set by Wegener and his brother Kurt, when they were in their twenties. However, from boyhood on his goal had always been to explore the Arctic, and he did, in fact, participate in four expeditions to Greenland, each of which demanded extraordinary amounts of physical endurance, “iron will, and energy.” Wegener’s explorations of Greenland also became well known to the general public through his entertaining accounts of his travels. In Graz, Austria, he was professor of meteorology and geophysics. In his professional life he was primarily a meteorologist, and his textbook, Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre, which was written when he was thirty, went through several editions. He wrote his dissertation on a topic in astronomy. Wegener was a remarkably versatile and creative scientist. For everyone interested in the earth sciences, Alfred Wegener’s life is a fascinating story.
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