Alfred+Wegener

Alfred Wegener -

Alfred Wegener was a german scientist who studied astronomy at university. He was also interested in meteorology (weather), which took him on 3 expeditions to Greenland, where he eventually died.

Alfred Wegener was born on November 1, 1880. In 1914 he was drafted into the German army, but was released from combat duty after being wounded, and served out the war in the Army weather forecasting service.

Alfred Lothar Wegener earned a Ph.D in astronomy from the University of Berlin in 1904.

Alfred Wegener married the daughter of the famous meteorologist and climatologist Wladimir Koppen.

Wegener experimented with kites and balloons, and with his brother Kurt set a world record in an international balloon contest, flying 52 hours straight. That was in 1906, the year he made his first expedition to Greenland. He went as the official meteorologist on a two-year Danish expedition. When he returned he took up teaching meteorology at the University of Marburg, where he was a very popular lecturer.

1912 publicly suggested continental drift 1911 first noticed the jigsaw like shape of the earth

Wegener used land features, fossils, and climate as evidence to support his hypothesis of continental drift. Examples of land features such as mountain ranges in Africa and South America lined up; also coal fields on Europe matched up with coal fields in North America.] Harry Hess came up with the theory of sea-floor spreading

On his last expedition, Alfred Wegener went missing on November 1930. His body was found on May 12th 1931. His suspected death was of heart failure through overexertion. other scientists of that time thort the earth was like a peice of fruit and when was cooled it schriveled and thus created the mountains and ridges

Although incorrect, Wegener said that continental drift was caused by "Centrifugal force", wich moved the heavy continents towards the equator as the earth spun.

Alfred Wegener noticed that the continents on a globe fit together like a jigsaw. Alfred wegener was also celebrating his birthday when he died in greenland

Wegener was able to fully develop his ideas int othe //theory of// //continental drift//, detailed in a book called **//The Origin of Continents and Oceans.//** It was published in 1915.