Did Alfred Wegener Discover Sea Floor Spreading

His book the origin of continents and oceans was originally published in germany in 1929 and was instrumental in the development of the theory of seafloor spreading.

Did alfred wegener discover sea floor spreading.

And a similar fit appears across the pacific. 1 november 1880 november 1930 was a german polar researcher geophysicist and meteorologist. Close examination of a globe often results in the observation that most of the continents seem to fit together like a puzzle. He pointed out that the continents are made of a different less dense rock granite than the volcanic basalt that makes up the deep sea floor in which wegener proposed that the continents floated somewhat like icebergs in water.

He spent a great deal of time in greenland as part of several exploration and research expeditions. This was the continental drift theory. The reaction to alfred wegener s theory tells us much about the workings of science. Alfred wegener german meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis.

In 1912 alfred wegener proposed a theory that the continents had once been joined and over time had drifted apart. It is the tectonic plates that move. Alfred wegener and plate tectonics. His theory was rejected by most geologists during his lifetime but was resurrected and made a central feature of modern geology as part of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s.

It is important to know that the following specific fossil evidence was not brought up by wegener to support his theory. Alfred wegener collected diverse pieces of evidence to support his theory including geological fit and fossil evidence. Wegener also noted that the continents move up and down to maintain equilibrium in a process called isostasy. Sea floor spreading is the phenomena of new sea floor being created through mid ocean ridges.

The missing mechanism seafloor spreading. Alfred wegener was born in berlin germany on november 1 1880. Wegener never found out about the sea floor spreading hypothesis for he died in 1930 and the evidence and proof of that process only arrived in the late 1950s wegener like several before him. Wegener himself did not collect.

The west african coastline seems to snuggle nicely into the east coast of south america and the caribbean sea. Alfred wegener s continental drift theory. Sea floor spreading caused the break up of pangea which prompted wegener to add this in support of his continental drift theory. Alfred lothar wegener ˈ v eɪ ɡ ən ər.