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Revolutionary Theory Found By Accident Of The Continental Drift Is Discovered
As far back as 1910, initial theories of the Continental Drift are already being outlined, and are beginning to be analyzed by specialists. The concept came to Alfred Wegener, and although he ignored theories because he believed they were unattainable, in 1911 he accidentally stumbled upon an article about paleontological evidence, which he found fascinating, and using intuition (a gut feeling), he elaborated on this theory. The inception of an original idea was born - The continental drift. -
Diagrams Including Evidence Are Published About The Continental Drift
Wegener published evidence to back up his theory of the Continental Drift, through diagrams. These three diagrams could be found in his published book "The Origin of the Continents and Oceans", and represented three periods of time demonstrating the continents breaking up, and drifting apart. The 'Upper Carboniferous' was the first stage, showing 'Pangea', one giant shape of mass surrounded by ocean. Stage 2 was 'Eocene', & as the continent began to split, it turned into the 'Older Quaternary'. -
The First Educated Hypothesis Of The Continental Drift is published
Alfred Wegener published his hypothesis of the continental drift in his book, "The origin of the continents and oceans". Although Wegener was not the first person to observe that certain continental coastlines fit together, he was the first to come through with an educated perception with geology, oceanography, and palaeontology to back his hypothesis with evidence. Alfred used a claim tester, Evidence (verifiable information ), to back up his theory on the continental drift. -
Fossil Distribution
The picture depicted above illustrates how similar fossil remains had been discovered in other continents. This was Wegeners theory, based on the continental drift. -
Wegener's Theory Begins To Attract Interest From Many
When Alfred published his theory of the continental drift, many scientists immediately doubted his idea - after all, there was no mechanism and evidence as to how the continents actually could move. Nonetheless, this hypothesis captivated interest from many geologists, as they had a similar perception floating around in their minds for a long time. This sparked hope for numerous people and was the beginning of new research and excitement for many. -
Subversive New Theory, Paleomagnetism, Backs Up The Continental Drift, Is Exposed
Up until 1950, the continental drift theory hadn't been written about in decades, however, what started as intuition (gut feeling), was about to be highly researched and elaborated on. In the 1950's, a new field of research titled paleomagnetism (the study of Earth’s magnetic field) was being explored, and this study was the first step to proving that the continents had once been positioned in a different way. In use of authority, they began to use minerals and fossils to research more deeply. -
Harry Hass Dictates A Paper Explaining Seafloor Spreading
Harry Hass discovers a unique source of evidence, containing evidence vital to what scientists had been on the search for, to back up the continental drift theory. Harry was a Princeton geology professor, who used sonar to map areas of the seafloor of the pacific and wrote a paper explaining the process named 'seafloor spreading' (undersea mountain chains). This mechanism was vital, and without the evidence from Harry Hass, this material to back up the continental drift would be banished. -
The Hevine-Matthews-Morpley Hypothesis Is Established
Initially Harry Hass was hesitant with his Hypothesis, as there was not much authority at the time to back it up, however, Paleomagnetists were deeply interested in researching more. They determined that the earth’s magnetic field usually flips its orientation, which led to a claim by Geophysicist & Geologists, Fred Vine, Lawrence Morley, and Drummond Matthews. This critical information is broadly involved in making up evidence to back up Wegener's theory. This hypothesis is demonstrated above. -
Continental Drift Theory Is Provided With Numerous Examples Of Evidence
During the last 1950's-60's, evidence to back up Wegener's theory was beginning to become more and more prominent. At this point, there were now four critical theories explored - Fossil Distribution, Paleontologists, Seafloor Spreading, and the Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis. All of these theories contributed to verifying Alfred Wegener's original theory of the continental drift. At this point, people were beginning to explore more about tectonic plates, relevant to the continental drift. -
The Acceptance Of The Continental Drift
From the time span of sixty years, the knowledge and evidence conspicuous surrounding the topic of the continental drift had risen extremely high. With the use of intuition, authority, evidence, logic, and countless amount of people's help, the theory of the continental drift was finally excepted. Fred Vine a mass contributer to help back up this theory confirms - "By the late 1960s, the vast majority of geologists and geophysicists were convinced that continental drift was a reality".
