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Wegener’s First Thought
"The concept of continental drift first came to me as far back as 1910, when considering the map of the world, under the direct impression produced by the congruence of the coastlines on either side of the Atlantic." - Alfred Wegener -
Wegener’s Accidental Discovery of Vital Information
"I came quite accidentally upon a report in which I learned of paleontological evidence for a former land bridge between Brazil and Africa." - Alfred Wegener This evidence helped Wegener to prove continent drift. He did this by using the example of fossils. Wegener discovered that the same type of fossils are found in Africa and South America. This began a conjecturally logic that the continents were once a supercontinent. -
Wegener’s Theory Acceptance
Alfred Wegener produced evidence that the continents are in motion, but because he could not explain what forces could move them, geologists rejected his ideas. This shows that his claim was not fully supported with evidence, therefore was considered an intuition and his claim was rejected. -
Alfred Wegener’s Book
He first published his ideas about continental drift in a book called "The Origin of the Continents and Oceans". In his book, he presented his evidence for his hypothesis that all the continents had been linked in one supercontinent at some time in the past. Although his ideas interested some of his colleagues, his claims were not accepted by most scientists. -
Arthur Holmes elaborated on one of Wegener's many hypotheses
Arthur Holmes suggested that thermal convection was like a conveyor belt and that the upwelling pressure could break apart a continent and then force the broken continent in opposite directions carried by the convection currents. The idea received very little attention at the time. This shows that it takes time for disciplines as well as the general public to accept an idea. -
The newly developed field of Paleomagnetism (1950s)
This proved that the continents had once been positioned differently by uncovering certain minerals known to form in alignment with Earth’s polarity that pointed in easterly or westerly directions instead of north or south. -
Hess' Paper explaining his process
A U.S. Navy officer and Princeton geology professor named Harry Hess, wrote a paper explaining a process he called seafloor spreading. (shown in diagram) This proved to be the mechanism for continental drift that scientists had been longing for. With all the claim testing and theories that had previously been made, this process finally had enough evidence to be accepted. -
Robert S. Dietz’ Book
Robert S Dietz published a book called “Seven Miles Down: The Story of the Bathyscaph Trieste”. In it, he predicted that the deep ocean floor would become the new frontier for resource exploitation. The prediction he made in this book was very similar to Harry Hess’ book that came out in the following year. Both of these predictions of the mantle convection currents led to further evidence bringing us to the knowledge we have today on Plate Tectonics. -
Harry Hess' Book
Harry Hess published his book “History of Ocean Basins ” in 1962, justifying his theory that explained how the continents could actually drift. His theory led to understanding knowledge of mountains and volcanic magma, which is critical as it manifests how features form and cause natural disasters. Hess’ prediction enhanced what Dietz stated in his book the previous year. Both predictions changed the way scientist viewed the continents, giving us knowledge today on Plate Tectonics. -
The Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis was released
Fred Vine, Lawrence Morley and Drummond Matthews proposed the Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis in 1963: "If new oceanic floor is continually being created at mid-ocean ridges, ocean-floor rocks should record past reversals of the magnetic field." Subsequent research confirmed the Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis, which showed that marine magnetic anomalies provided evidence for seafloor spreading. This inflicted acceptance of the theory of continental drift. -
The General Acceptance of The Continental Drift Theory
By the late 1960's (approximately 1964) the vast majority of geologists and geophysicists were convinced that continental drift was a reality. Alfred Wegener, Harry Hess, and every other individual who contributed to the continental drift theory were finally accepted by the general society. All the claims and hypothesis made in the build up of the acceptance of continental drift shows the process of collective learning. As this understanding was built upon over time. -
Wilson Propose the Theory of Plate Tectonics
In 1965, a Canadian geophysicist, J. Tuzo Wilson, combined the continental drift and seafloor spreading hypotheses to propose the theory of plate tectonics. Tuzo said that Earth’s crust, or lithosphere, was divided into large, rigid pieces called plates. -
Geologist agreed on the term ‘Plate Tectonics’ (1970s)
By the 1970s, geologists had agreed to use the term “plate tectonics” for what has become the core paradigm of their discipline. They used the term “plates” because they had found evidence that not just continents move, but so do whole plates of the Earth’s crust.
