INDIAN GEOGRAPHY

Detailed explanation-1: -The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other.

Detailed explanation-2: -Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once united into a single supercontinent named Pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient Greek. He suggested that Pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to their current positions. He called his hypothesis continental drift.

Detailed explanation-3: -Alfred Wegener, in full Alfred Lothar Wegener, (born November 1, 1880, Berlin, Germany-died November 1930, Greenland), German meteorologist and geophysicist who formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis.

Detailed explanation-4: -The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.

Detailed explanation-5: -Wegener first presented his idea of continental drift in 1912, but it was widely ridiculed and soon, mostly, forgotten. Wegener never lived to see his theory accepted-he died at the age of 50 while on an expedition in Greenland. Only decades later, in the 1960s, did the idea of continental drift resurface.