Alfred Lothar Wegener (1 November 1880 – 2 November 1930) was a German scientist, geologist, and meteorologist.
He is most notable for his theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung), proposed in 1915, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. However, Wegener was unable to demonstrate a mechanism for continental drift, which, combined with his mostly circumstantial evidence, meant that his hypothesis was not accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries provided evidence of continental drift.[1]
Biography
Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin during the time of the German Empire.
Career
Alfred had early training in astronomy. In 1905, Wegener earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Berlin. However Wegener was always interested in the developing fields of meteorology and climatology. He was a record-holding balloonist (flying a balloon in the air for 52 hours straight) and pioneered the use of weather balloons to track air masses. His lectures, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere, became a standard textbook in meteorology. Wegener was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of the jet stream was accepted.
Wegener (
left) and Villumsen (
right) in Greenland, 1930 expedition.
In 1930, his last expedition was to Greenland to conduct the first 12-month monitoring of arctic weather. Wegener felt responsible for the expeditions success as the German government contributed $120,000 ($1.5 million in 2007 dollars) at a time when Germans were starving to death due to post war shortages. This success depended on enough provisions being transferred from West camp to "Mid-Ice" (Eismitte) for two men to winter there and was a factor in the decision that led to his death. Due to a late thaw the expedition was six weeks behind schedule and as summer ended the men at Eismitte sent a message that they had insufficient fuel so would return on October 20.
On September 22, although the route markers were by now largely buried by snow, Wegener set out with thirteen Greenlanders and his meteorologist Fritz Loewe to supply the camp by dog sled. During the journey the temperature reached −60 °C (−76 °F) and Loewe's toes became so frostbitten they had to be amputated with a penknife without anaesthetic. Twelve of the Greenlanders returned to West camp. On October 19. the remaining three members of the expedition reached Eismitte.
With only enough supplies for three at Eismitte, Wegener and Rasmus Villumsen took two dog sleds and made for West camp. They took no food for the dogs and culled them to feed the rest until they could only run one sled. While Villumsen rode the sled, Wegener had to use skis. They never reached the camp.
Death
On May 12, 1931, Wegener's body was found in Greenland buried in a sleeping bag cover six months later. He was found halfway between Eismitte and West camp. At 50 years of age and a heavy smoker his suspected cause of death was heart failure through overexertion.
Villumsen was never found. It is unlikely Villumsen's body will ever be recovered as it is estimated that due to accumulation of ice it now lies at a depth of more than 100 metres (330 ft).
Continental drift
From 1912, Wegener publicly advocated the theory of "continental drift", arguing that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have drifted apart.
In 1915, in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), Wegener published the theory that there had once been a giant continent, he named "Pangaea" (meaning "All-Lands" or "All-Earth") and drew together evidence from various fields. Expanded editions during the 1920s presented the accumulating evidence. The last edition, just before his untimely death, revealed the significant observation that shallower oceans were geologically younger.
Wegener in Greenland, 1930 expedition.
Reaction
In his work, Wegener presented a large amount of circumstantial evidence in support of continental drift, but he was unable to come up with a convincing mechanism. Thus, while his ideas attracted a few early supporters such as Alexander Du Toit from South Africa and Arthur Holmes in England, the hypothesis was generally met with skepticism. The one American edition of Wegener's work, published in 1925, was received so poorly that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists organized a symposium specifically in opposition to the continental drift hypothesis. Also its opponents could, as did the Leipziger geologist Franz Kossmat, argue that the oceanic crust was too firm for the continents to "simply plow through". In 1943 George Gaylord Simpson wrote a vehement attack on the theory (as well as the rival theory of sunken land bridges) and put forward his own permanentist views [2]. Alexander du Toit wrote a rejoinder in the following year[3], but G.G.Simpson's influence was so powerful that even in countries previously sympathetic towards continental drift, like Australia, Wegener's hypothesis fell out of favour.
In the early 1950s, the new science of paleomagnetism pioneered at Cambridge University by S. K. Runcorn and at Imperial College by P.M.S. Blackett was soon throwing up data in favour of Wegener's theory. By early 1953 samples taken from India showed that the country had previously been in the Southern hemisphere as predicted by Wegener. By 1959, the theory had enough supporting data that minds were starting to change, particularly in the United Kingdom where, in 1964, the Royal Society held a symposium on the subject.[4]
Additionally, the 1960s saw several developments in geology, notably the discoveries of seafloor spreading and Wadati-Benioff zones, led to the rapid resurrection of the continental drift hypothesis and its direct descendant, the theory of plate tectonics. Alfred Wegener was quickly recognized as a founding father of one of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century.
Awards and honors
Letter featuring artwork of Wegener, Villumsen, and
Eismitte (station in background).
The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, was established in 1980 on his centenary. It awards the Wegener Medal in his name.[5] The crater Wegener on the Moon and the crater Wegener on Mars, as well as the asteroid 29227 Wegener and the peninsula where he died in Greenland (Wegener Peninsula near Ummannaq, 71°12′00″N 51°50′00″W / 71.2°N 51.833333°W / 71.2; -51.833333), are named after him.[6]
The European Geosciences Union sponsors an Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership "for scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in atmospheric, hydrological or ocean sciences, defined in their widest senses, for their merit and their scientific achievements."[7]
References
- ^ Spaulding, Nancy E., and Samuel N. Namowitz. Earth Science. Boston: McDougal Littell, 2005.
- ^ G.G. Simpson, "Mammals and the Nature of Continents", American Journal of Science 241 (1943):1-31
- ^ A. du Toit, "Tertiary Mammals and Continental Drift", American Journal of Science 242 (1944): 145-63
- ^ H. Frankel, "The Continental Drift", in "Scientific Controversies: Case Solutions in the resolution and closure of disputes in science and technology", ed. H.T. Engelhardt Jr and A.L. Caplan, Cambridge University Press (1987)
- ^ http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/News/Print_Products/PDF/252-265_Kap12.pdf Alfred Wegener Institute, 2005 Annual report, page 259
- ^ JPL Small-Body Database Browser
- ^ "EGU: Awards & Medals". http://www.egu.eu/en/awards-medals/awards-medals.html?file=alfred_wegener_overview&cHash=f431498f549e2878936516b2a644ecac. Retrieved on 2009-09-16.
Further reading
- Wegener, Alfred (July 1912). "Die entstehung der kontinente" (in German). International Journal of Earth Sciences. doi:10.1007/BF02202896.
- Wegener, Alfred (1922) (in German). Die entstehung der kontinente und ozeane ....
- Wegener, Alfred (1966). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. New York: Dover. - (Translated from the fourth revised German edition by John Biram)
- Wegener, Alfred (1968). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. London: Methuen. - (Translated from the fourth German edition by John Biram with an introduction by B.C. King)
- Wegener, Elsie (Editor, with the assistance of Dr. Fritz Loewe) (1939). Greenland Journey, The Story of Wegener’s German Expedition to Greenland in 1930-31 as told by Members of the Expedition and the Leader’s Diary. London: Blackie & Son Ltd.. - (Translated from the seventh German edition by Winifred M. Deans)
- Wegener, Alfred (1911). Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre. Leipzig: Verlag Von Johann Ambrosius Barth. http://books.google.com/books?id=slxDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR1&dq=alfred+wegener&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR1,M2. - (Wegener's Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere)
External links
