Whose idea was plate tectonics?
Quick Answer
Alfred Wegener proposed the early idea of continental drift in 1912, but the modern theory of plate tectonics was developed in the 1960s by many geologists and geophysicists. Wegener was the key pioneer behind the concept.
The Full Story
Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and geophysicist, presented continental drift in 1912 and published it in 1915. He argued that continents had once been joined in a supercontinent he called Pangaea. Wegener did not have a convincing mechanism, so his idea was widely rejected at first. In the 1960s, evidence from seafloor spreading, paleomagnetism, and ocean-floor mapping turned continental drift into the modern theory of plate tectonics.
Key Facts
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