From this point on, he began to focus on the idea of continental drift and tirelessly looked for geological and paleontological evidence to test his hypothesis. He compared the shores of every continent and realized how they fit against each other like jigsaw puzzle pieces, and he stated that these geological features have become an ongoing pattern. But Wegener was developing an alternative theory. They put forward the theory that plants and animals migrated between continents through land bridges that are not available now. Geologists were already aware of these cases. Moreover, he saw the same phenomenon in the geological formations that started in Africa and continued in South America. The idea of the continental drift theory emerged here.Īlfred Wegener first found some identical fossils on both sides of the ocean. However, the two soon began working together in research on paleoclimate, which is based on geological and paleontological evidence, such as coal deposits, salt deposits, plant and animal fossils, and glaciers. Köppen was more experienced at the time, so he mentored Wegener. In 1913, he married Köppen’s daughter, Else. Meanwhile, Köppen was working on the classification of the world’s climates. These expeditions boosted Wegener’s reputation in Europe, especially in Denmark and Germany.Īlfred Wegener consulted with leading climate scientist Wladimir Köppen while planning the Greenland expeditions. In 1912, he again went to Greenland on a Danish expedition, during which time he became one of the first people to cross Greenland from east to west with his dog sled. He started his first research in Greenland in 1906, when he was invited as a climate scientist and glaciologist to a Danish expedition led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen. Alfred Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory This ice house, built by Alfred Wegener, stayed in use after his death. Until that time, he had already attracted some attention and raised some doubts with his theory of how the great land masses of the Earth came about. In 1924, Wegener received a long-desired professorship offer from the University of Graz, Austria. In 1905, he became a meteorological observer at the Urania Observatory near Berlin in 1909, he started teaching at the University of Marburg and taught astronomy and atmospheric physics. During his education, he focused primarily on astronomy, then on meteorology and climate science. Wegener was born on November 1, 1880, in Berlin. However, according to him, these two initiatives were very reasonable efforts due to his passionate interest in climate studies. Alfred Wegener ( Alfred Lothar Wegener) was recognized for two very different successes in his life: Arctic climate research and the theory of continental drift.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |