Did Alfred Wegener Discover Sea Floor Spreading

Alfred wegener s continental drift theory.

Did alfred wegener discover sea floor spreading.

The west african coastline seems to snuggle nicely into the east coast of south america and the caribbean sea. Alfred wegener german meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis. Wegener proposed that the continents themselves move which is untrue. The missing mechanism seafloor spreading.

Wegener himself did not collect. Wegener also noted that the continents move up and down to maintain equilibrium in a process called isostasy. It is the tectonic plates that move. He spent a great deal of time in greenland as part of several exploration and research expeditions.

Alfred wegener collected diverse pieces of evidence to support his theory including geological fit and fossil evidence. 1 november 1880 november 1930 was a german polar researcher geophysicist and meteorologist. This was the continental drift theory. 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. Alfred lothar wegener ˈ v eɪ ɡ ən ər. And a similar fit appears across the pacific. Sea floor spreading is the phenomena of new sea floor being created through mid ocean ridges.

It is important to know that the following specific fossil evidence was not brought up by wegener to support his theory. Close examination of a globe often results in the observation that most of the continents seem to fit together like a puzzle. Alfred wegener was born in berlin germany on november 1 1880. 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.

During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research but today he is most remembered as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting. 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. Similar to wegener s theory that continents do in fact move hess seafloor spreading contradicted wegener s continental drift in that it involved the ocean sea floor moving as it expanded instead of continents ploughing through the sea. 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.