Alfred Wegener biography Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift

Alfred Wegener (full name Alfred Lothar Wegener) was born in Berlin on November 1, 1880. He obtained a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Berlin in 1904.

Since 1906, Alfred Wegner participated in several expeditions to Greenland where he followed the high air mass and scientifically established the so-called high flow "jet stream" there.

The purpose of this special exploration is to read the Arctic Weather in Greenland within a year. Wegner led the party and re-offered a camp called Eismitte (or Mid - Ice). It was exhausted internally and was not resupplied due to summer restrictions and limitation of summer snow melting. The party began late September 1930 and was very suffering at a temperature of -60 ° C, complementing avant-garde camp stores. Wegener and the other two actually actually returned from the original party to Base Camp and completed the other 12 people. It took four weeks to complete the journey from the base camp to the forefront camp.

However, the shop Wegener brought was very limited, and he and other people voluntarily leave the camp, refuel and eat, have enough shops to secure the base camp's safety I just came. Until now, in winter the winter is closed again in October - they even seem to be planning to survive by consuming their comrade the sled dogs sacrificed to survive.

Alfred Wegner of this dangerous journey and his comrades Rasmus Virinson were not living to reach the base camp. Wegener was 50 at the time of his death (early November 1930), and in particular was a heavy smoker.

About 1911 Alfred Wegner was influenced by scientific papers and found fossils of the same animal and plant on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and began to present one of the most controversial theories at the time. Together, but around 1915 he separated the process clearly - in the publication of a book outlining the origin of the continent and the origins of the sea, Wegner's theory - the continental drift (in fact) - his own mother tongue In - as Kontinentalverschiebung, or from Verschiebung der Kontinente)

Only in the early 1950's the science of the new paleomagnetic science emerged, the continental drift theory which controversial of Alfred Wegner was taken seriously by the mainstream geologist and other scientists, finally by the mainstream science It was accepted. Plate theory in the 1960's

So what is the difference between continental drift and plate structure? The continental drift theory points out that the mainland was part of the supercontinent, formerly known as Pangea. Alfred Wegener was the first institution to offer a comprehensive theory on continental drifting, but was unable to provide a viable explanation of how the continent actually drifted. The theory of plate tectonics is based on continental drift theory. This explains how many plates the supercontinent is divided into. It explains that the continents are separated from each other because of the constant interaction between the Earth's fascia plate and the Earth's core heat.

The plate structure is a relatively new concept. The theory of plate tectonics was widely accepted in the 1960s. About 50 years ago, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) developed a theory called continental drift. Wegner believes that the position of the Earth's continent is not fixed. Instead he believes in the name of continental drift they can move and drift over the surface of the earth over time - hence continental drift. The most obvious evidence of Wegner's theory is that some continents of the world are like fragments of a jigsaw puzzle. On this basis, he proposed that the continent of the world had united in the continent before, he called it Pangea (pronounced Pan - JEE - Oh) supercontinent. Wegener believes that this supercontinent was subdivided into six continents today.