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Abraham Ortelius
He hypothesized continental drift by noticing how continents coastline could fit together. He stated the the Americas were separated from Europe and Africa, with South America eastern coastline and Africa western coastline. The scientific community disagreed with his claim because he had no evidence to explain how the continets drifted, and even the theory he had was based on the idea that continets coastline happened to fit together. -
Alfred Wegener
He proposed the continental drift theory that stated that the continents were all part of a massive super continent called Pangaea millions of years ago. That the continents drifted to where they are now. He supported his idea by showing how the continents coastline could fit together. How else could similar animal species be on different continents separated oceans apart.. The scientific community disagreed with his theory because he couldn't prove how the continents drifted. -
Arthur Holmes
Holmes supported Wegener's theory that continents drifted from a massive supercontinent. He stated that the Earth's mantle contained convection cells that got rid of radioactive heat. That moved the crust at the surface separating the continents. At the time the scientific community disagreed with his theory because it championed Wegener's Continental Drift Theory which was deeply unfashionable at the time. -
Harry Hess
He stated the sea floor spreading theory that new ocean crust was being formed at ocean ridges and convection currents carried the new crust away from the ridges. Widing the ocean and pushing continets apart. He supported the idea by saying earth's crust moved laterally away from volcanically active ocean ridges. Scientific Community agreed with his theory because it was in a new time period where there was multiple evidence to support Wegener's theory. -
Frederick J. Vine, Drummond H. Matthews and Laurence W. Morley
They stated that if Hess theory was correct than there should be a magnetic field pattern in the sea as new crust forms. They found reverse polarities in the earth's oceans that signaled that the earth's crust had symmetrical and barrel magnetic anomilies that showed the continets being pushed away. The scientfic community supported the theory because it contributed to the sea floor theory which was widley accepted at the time. -
Dr. John Tuzol Wilson and Hotspots
Wilson belief was that island chains were formed as the oceanic crust moved over a stationary hotspot below. That plate movement was responsible for the formation of new islands as they passed over the hotspot. The oldest islands were the farthest removed with the newest and volcanically active island currently sitting over the hotspot. Scientfic community disagreed with Wilson because the idea of mid-ocean ridges was just beginning to form and the idea by Wilson caused scientist to be wary. -
Glomar Challenge Expedition
It was a vessel that set out to explore the mid-ocean ridge between South America and Africa. Drilling through the rock it was revealed through rock samples that the farther rock was from the ocean ridge the older it was. It supported Hess sea-floor spreading theory. It was accepted by the scientfic community because it added onto more evidence that supported the Continental Drift Theory. -
Dr. John Tuzol Wilson and The Third Type of Plate Boundary
Wilson theorized the idea that there was a third plate boundary after convergent and divergent plates called transfrom faults or conservative plate boundaries. The crust would move past each other horizantally without crust being created or destroyed and was later proven by a study of the fault plane. It was accepted by the scientfic community becasue of all the new revelations made about plate tetonics and the earth's crust.
