Alfred Wegener

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Alfred Wegener

Alfred Wegener, ca. 1924-1930

November 1, 1880
Berlin, German Empire
November 1930 (aged 50)
Died
Clarinetania, Greenland
Residence
Germany
Citizenship German
Nationality German
Fields
Meteorology, Geology, Astronomy
Alma mater University of Berlin
Doctoral advisor Julius Bauschinger
Known for Continental drift theory
Influenced
Johannes Letzmann
Signature
Born

Alfred Lothar Wegener (November 1, 1880 November 1930) was a German polar researcher,
geophysicist and meteorologist.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a
pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered as the originator of the theory of
continental drift by hypothesizing in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth
(Kontinentalverschiebung). His hypothesis was controversial and not widely accepted until the

1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for
continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.[1][2] Wegener
was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the
existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological
observations and achieved the first-ever overwintering on the inland Greenland ice sheet as well
as the first-ever boring of ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.

Contents

1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life and education
o 1.2 First Greenland expedition and years in Marburg
o 1.3 Second Greenland expedition
o 1.4 World War I
o 1.5 Postwar period and third expedition
o 1.6 Fourth and last expedition
o 1.7 Death

2 Continental drift theory

o 2.1 Reaction

3 Modern developments

4 Awards and honors

5 See also

6 References

7 Selected works

8 External links

Biography

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Early life and education

On November 1, 1880, Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin as the youngest of five children in a
clergyman's family. His father, Richard Wegener, was a theologian and teacher of classical
languages at the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. In 1886 his family purchased a
former manor house near Rheinsberg, which they used as a vacation home. Today there is an
Alfred Wegener Memorial site and tourist information office in a nearby building that was once
the local schoolhouse.[3]

Commemorative plaque on Wegener's former school in Wallstrasse

Wegener attended school at the Kllnisches Gymnasium on Wallstrasse in Berlin (a fact which is
memorialized on a plaque on this protected building, now a school of music), graduating as the
best in his class. Afterward he studied Physics, meteorology and Astronomy in Berlin,
Heidelberg and Innsbruck. From 1902 to 1903 during his studies he was an assistant at the
Urania astronomical observatory. He obtained a doctorate in astronomy in 1905 based on a
dissertation written under the supervision of Julius Bauschinger at Friedrich Wilhelms University
(today Humboldt University), Berlin. Wegener had always maintained a strong interest in the
developing fields of meteorology and climatology and his studies afterwards focused on these
disciplines.
In 1905 Wegener became an assistant at the Aeronautisches Observatorium Lindenberg]] near
Beeskow. He worked there with his brother Kurt, two years his senior, who was likewise a
scientist with an interest in meteorology and polar research. The two pioneered the use of
weather balloons to track air masses. On a balloon ascent undertaken to carry out meteorological
investigations and to test a celestial navigation method using a particular type of quadrant
(Libellenquadrant), the Wegener brothers set a new record for a continuous balloon flight,
remaining aloft 52.5 hours from April 57, 1906.[4]

First Greenland expedition and years in Marburg

In that same year 1906, Wegener participated in the first of his four Greenland expeditions, later
regarding this experience as marking a decisive turning point in his life. The expedition was led
by the Dane Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen and charged with studying the last unknown portion of the
northeastern coast of Greenland. During the expedition Wegener constructed the first
meteorological station in Greenland near Danmarkshavn, where he launched kites and tethered
balloons to make meteorological measurements in an Arctic climatic zone. Here Wegener also
made his first acquaintance with death in a wilderness of ice when the expedition leader and two
of his colleagues died on an exploratory trip undertaken with sled dogs.
After his return in 1908 and until World War I, Wegener was a lecturer in meteorology, applied
astronomy and cosmic physics at the University of Marburg. His students and colleagues in
Marburg particularly valued his ability to clearly and understandably explain even complex
topics and current research findings without sacrificing precision. His lectures formed the basis
of what was to become a standard textbook in meteorology, first written In 1909/1910:
Thermodynamik der Atmosphre (Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere), in which he
incorporated many of the results of the Greenland expedition.
On 6 January 1912 he publicized his first thoughts about continental drift in a lecture at a session
of the Geologischen Vereinigung at the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt am Main and in three
articles in the journal Petermanns Geographischen Mitteilungen.[5]

Second Greenland expedition

After a stopover in Iceland to purchase and test ponys as pack animals, the expedition arrived in
Danmarkshavn. Even before the trip to the inland ice began the expedition was almost
annihilated by a calving glacier. The Danish expedition leader, Johan Peter Koch, broke his leg
when he fell into a glacier crevasse and spent months recovering in a sickbed. Wegener and Koch
were the first to winter on the inland ice in northeast Greenland.[6] Inside their hut they drilled to
a depth of 25 m with an auger. In summer 1913 the team crossed the inland ice, the four
expedition participants covering a distance twice as long as Fridtjof Nansen's southern Greenland
crossing in 1888. Only a few kilometers from the western Greenland settlement of
Kangersuatsiaq the small team ran out of food while struggling to find their way through difficult
glacial breakup terrain. But at the last moment, after the last pony and dog had been eaten, they
were picked up at a fjord by the clergyman of Upernavik, who just happened to be visiting a
remote congregation at the time.
Later in 1913 after his return Wegener married Else Kppen, the daughter of his former teacher
and mentor, the meteorologist Wladimir Kppen. The young pair lived in Marburg, where
Wegner resumed his university lectureship.

World War I
As an infantry reserve officer Wegener was immediately called up when the First World War
began in 1914. On the war front in Belgium he experienced fierce fighting but his term lasted
only a few months: after being wounded twice he was declared unfit for active service and
assigned to the army weather service. This activity required him to travel constantly between

various weather stations in Germany, on the Balkans, on the Western Front and in the Baltic
region.
Nevertheless, he was able in 1915 to complete the first version of his major work, Die
Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans). His brother
Kurt remarked that Alfred Wegeners motivation was to reestablish the connection between
geophysics on the one hand and geography and geology on the other, which had become
completely ruptured because of the specialized development of these branches of science.
Interest in this small publication was however low, also because of wartime chaos. By the end of
the war Wegener had published almost 20 additional meteorological and geophysical papers in
which he repeatedly embarked for new scientific frontiers. In 1917 he undertook a scientific
investigation of the Treysa meteorite.

Postwar period and third expedition

Wegener obtained a position as a meteorologist at the German Naval Observatory (Deutsche
Seewarte) and moved to Hamburg with his wife and their two daughters. In 1921 he was
appointed senior lecturer at the new University of Hamburg. From 1919 to 1923 Wegener
worked on Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit (The Climates of the Geological Past),
published together with his father-in-law, Wladimir Kppen. In 1922 the third, fully revised
edition of The Origin of Continents and Oceans appeared, and discussion began on his theory
of continental drift, first in the German language area and later internationally. Withering
criticism was the response of most experts.
In 1924 Wegener was appointed to a professorship in meteorology and geophysics in Graz,
which finally provided him with a secure position for himself and his family. He concentrated on
physics and the optics of the atmosphere as well as the study of tornados. Scientific assessment
of his second Greenland expedition (ice measurements, atmospheric optics, etc.) continued to the
end of the 1920s.
In November 1926 Wegener presented his continental drift theory at a symposium of the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists in New York City, again earning rejection from
everyone but the chairman. Three years later the fourth and final expanded edition of The
Origin of Continents and Oceans appeared.
In 1929 Wegener embarked on his third trip to Greenland, which laid the groundwork for a later
main expedition and included a test of an innovative, propeller-driven snowmobile.

Fourth and last expedition

Wegener (left) and Villumsen (right) in Greenland; November 1, 1930.

Wegener's last Greenland expedition was in 1930. The 14 participants under his leadership were
to establish three permanent stations from which the thickness of the Greenland ice sheet could
be measured and year-round Arctic weather observations made. Wegener felt personally
responsible for the expedition's success, as the German government had contributed $120,000
($1.5 million in 2007 dollars). Success depended on enough provisions being transferred from
West camp to Eismitte ("mid-ice") for two men to winter there, and this was a factor in the
decision that led to his death. Owing 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 and so would return on October 20.

Vehicles used by the 1930 expedition (stored).

On September 24, although the route markers were by now largely buried under 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 anesthetic. Twelve of the
Greenlanders returned to West camp. On October 19, the remaining three members of the
expedition reached Eismitte. There being 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 killed them one by one to feed the rest until they could run only one sled. While
Villumsen rode the sled, Wegener had to use skis. They never reached the camp. The expedition
was completed by his brother, Kurt Wegener.

This expedition inspired the Greenland expedition episode of Adam Melfort in John Buchan's
1933 novel A Prince of the Captivity.

Death
Six months later, on May 12, 1931, Wegener's body was found halfway between Eismitte and
West camp. It had been buried (by Villumsen) with great care and a pair of skis marked the grave
site. Wegener had been fifty years of age and a heavy smoker and it was believed that he had
died of heart failure brought on by overexertion. His body was reburied in the same spot by the
team that found him and the grave was marked with a large cross. After burying Wegener,
Villumsen had resumed his journey to West camp but was never seen again. Villumsen was
twenty three when he died and it is estimated that his body, and Wegener's diary, now lie under
more than 100 metres (330 ft) of accumulated ice and snow.

Continental drift theory

Alfred Wegener first thought of this idea by noticing that the different large landmasses of the
Earth almost fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Continental shelf of the Americas fit closely to
Africa and Europe, and Antarctica, Australia, India and Madagascar fit next to the tip of Southern
Africa. But Wegener only took action after reading a paper in 1911 and seeing that a flooded
land-bridge contradicts isostasy.[7] Wegener's main interest was meteorology, and he wanted to
join the Denmark-Greenland expedition scheduled for mid-1912. He presented his Continental
Drift hypothesis on January 6, 1912. He analyzed either side of the Atlantic Ocean for rock type,
geological structures and fossils. He noticed that there wa
Fossil patterns across continents (Gondwana).
From 1912, Wegener publicly advocated the existence of "continental drift", arguing that all the
continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have drifted apart. He supposed
that the mechanisms might be the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation ("Polflucht") or the
astronomical precession caused the drift. Wegener also speculated on sea-floor spreading and the
role of the mid-ocean ridges, stating: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ... zone in which the floor of the
Atlantic, as it keeps spreading, is continuously tearing open and making space for fresh,
relatively fluid and hot sima [rising] from depth.[8] However, he did not pursue these ideas in his
later works.
In 1915, in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane),
Wegener drew together evidence from various fields to advance the theory that there had once
been a giant continent which he named "Urkontinent"[9] (German for "primal continent",
analogous to the Greek "Pangaea",[10] meaning "All-Lands" or "All-Earth"). Expanded editions
during the 1920s presented further evidence. The last edition, just before his untimely death,
revealed the significant observation that shallower oceans were geologically younger.

Wegener during J.P. Koch's Expedition 1912 - 1913 in the winter base "Borg".

Reaction
In his work, Wegener presented a large amount of observational evidence in support of
continental drift, but the mechanism remained elusive, partly because Wegener's estimate of the
velocity of continental motion, 250 cm/year, was high.[11] (The currently accepted rate for the
separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa is about 2.5 cm/year).[12]
While his ideas attracted a few early supporters such as Alexander Du Toit from South Africa
and Arthur Holmes in England,[13] the hypothesis was initially met with skepticism from
geologists who viewed Wegener as an outsider, and were resistant to change.[13] The one
American edition of Wegener's work, published in 1925, which was written in "a dogmatic style
that often results from Germany translations",[13] was received so poorly that the American
Association of Petroleum Geologists organized a symposium specifically in opposition to the
continental drift hypothesis.[14] The opponents argued, as did the Leipziger geologist Franz
Kossmat, that the oceanic crust was too firm for the continents to "simply plough through".
Wegener's fit of the
supercontinent at the 200m isobath (the continental shelves), an idea he had since at least 1910,
was a good match.[13] Part of the reason Wegener's ideas were not initially accepted was based on
his proposed fit of the continents, with Charles Schuchert commenting:
During this vast time [of the split of Pangea] the sea waves have been continuously pounding
against Africa and Brazil and in many places rivers have been bringing into the ocean great
amounts of eroded material, yet everywhere the geographic shore lines are said to have remained
practically unchanged! It apparently makes no difference to Wegener how hard or how soft are
the rocks of these shore lines, what are their geological structures that might aid or retard land or
marine erosion, how often the strand lines have been elevated or depressed, and how far
peneplanation has gone on during each period of continental stability. Furthermore, sea-level in
itself has not been constant, especially during the Pleistocene, when the lands were covered by
millions of square miles of ice made from water subtracted out of the oceans. In the equatorial
regions, this level fluctuated three times during the Pleistocene, and during each period of ice
accumulation the sea-level sank about 250 feet.[citation needed]
The comment was based on the misapprehension that Wegener's fit was judged along the current
coastline, while Wegener was using the 200m isobath. Wegener, who was in the audience, made

no attempt to defend his work, (possibly because of an inadequate command of the English
language). Supporters such as Toit, also contributed to this misunderstanding of the method of
the continental fitting, commenting (after Wegener's death) "most persons view the continental
shelf as an integral part of the continental block, and criticise Wegener for endeavoring to fit
together the masses by their present coastlines instead of by the submerged margins of the
shelves."[13]
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.[15] Alexander du Toit
wrote a rejoinder in the following year.[16]

Modern developments

The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century.
In the early 1950s, the new science of paleomagnetism pioneered at the University of Cambridge
by S. K. Runcorn and at Imperial College by P.M.S. Blackett was soon producing 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.[17]
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 the founding father of one of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century.
With the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), it became possible to measure
continental drift directly.[18]

Awards and honors

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.[19] 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, 7112N
5150W), are named after him.[20]
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."[21]

See also

Hair ice

References
1.
Spaulding, Nancy E.; Namowitz, Samuel N. (2005). Earth Science. Boston: McDougal
Littell. ISBN 0-618-11550-1.
McIntyre, Michael; Eilers, H. Peter; Mairs, John (1991). Physical geography. New York:
Wiley. p. 273. ISBN 0-471-62017-3.
The memorial site is the Gedenksttte Zechlinerhtte, see
http://www.zechlinerhuette.com/de/tourismusinfo/wegener_gedenkstaette.php (in German)
Victor Silberer: Die Dauerfahrt von 52 Stunden. In: Wiener Luftschiffer-Zeitung 5, Heft
8, 1906, S. 156157
Alfred Wegener
Dansgaard W (2004). Frozen Annals Greenland Ice Sheet Research. Odder, Denmark:
Narayana Press. p. 124. ISBN 87-990078-0-0.
Arldt, Th. (1910). "Referat Scharff: Ueber die Beweissgruende fuer eine fruehere
Landbruecke zwischen Nordeuropa und Nordamerika". Naturwiss. Rdsch. (in German) 25: 86
87., Scharff, R. F. (1909). "Ueber die Beweissgruende fuer eine fruehere Landbruecke zwischen
Nordeuropa und Nordamerika". Proc. Royal Irish Acad. (in German) 28: 128. cited in Flgel,
Helmut W. (December 1980). "Wegener-Ampferer-Schwinner: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Geologie in sterreich" [Wegener-Ampferer-Schwinner: A Contribution to the History of the
Geology in Austria] (PDF). Mitt. sterr. Geol. Ges. (in German) 73.
Jacoby, W. R. (January 1981). "Modern concepts of earth dynamics anticipated by Alfred
Wegener in 1912". Geology 9: 2527. Bibcode:1981Geo.....9...25J. doi:10.1130/00917613(1981)9<25:MCOEDA>2.0.CO;2.
according to the OED, 2d edition (1989), the word is not found in the 1915 edition of
Wegener's text; it appears in the 1920 edition but with no indication that Wegener coined it
W.A.J.M. van Waterschoot van der Gracht, Bailey Willis, Rollin T. Chamberlin, John
Joly, G.A.F. Molengraaff, J.W. Gregory, Alfred Wegener, Charles Schuchert, Chester R.
Longwell, Frank Bursley Taylor, William Bowie, David White, Joseph T. Singewald, Jr., and
Edward W. Berry (1928). W.A.J.M. van Waterschoot van der Gracht, ed. Theory of Continental
Drift: a symposium on the origin and movement of land masses both intercontinental and

intracontinental as proposed by Alfred Wegener, A Symposium of the American Association of

Petroleum Geologists (AAPG, 1926). Tulsa, OK. p. 240.
University of California Museum of Paleontology, Alfred Wegener (1880-1930)
(accessed 30 April 2015).
Unavco Plate Motion Calculator (accessed 30 April 2015).
Drake, Ellen T. (1 January 1976). "Alfred Wegener's reconstruction of Pangea". Geology
4 (1): 41. Bibcode:1976Geo.....4...41D. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1976)4<41:AWROP>2.0.CO;2.
H. Tristam Engelhardt Jr and Arthur L. Caplan, ed. (1987). Scientific Controversies: Case
studies in the resolution and closure of disputes in science and technology. pp. 210211.
Simpson, G.G. (1943). "Mammals and the Nature of Continents". American Journal of
Science 241: 131. doi:10.2475/ajs.241.1.1.
du Toit, A. (1944). "Tertiary Mammals and Continental Drift". American Journal of
Science 242 (3): 14563. doi:10.2475/ajs.242.3.145.
Frankel, H. (1987). "The Continental Drift Debate". In H.T. Engelhardt Jr and A.L.
Caplan. Scientific Controversies: Case Solutions in the resolution and closure of disputes in
science and technology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27560-6.
Brady Haran (4 June 2003). "The millimetre men". BBC News UK.
"2005 Annual report", page 259, Alfred Wegener Institute
JPL Small-Body Database Browser