Alfred Wegener was born on January 11, 1880, in Berlin, Germany Alfred Wegener was born on January 11, 1880, in Berlin, Germany. His father was director of an orphanage. He died 50 years later, November 1930, in Greenland. He and a fellow scientist froze to death while attempting to return to their base camp.

Wegener grew up in Germany, studying in Berlin and Heidelberg, Germany, and Innsbruck, Austria. He was an astronomer, geophysicist, meteorologist, and climatologist, as well as an Arctic explorer. As a meteorologist, he pioneered the use of balloons to study and teach air circulation.

Wegener and his brother Kurt flew hot air balloons. In 1906 when he was 26, he and Kurt stayed aloft in a hot air balloon for more than 52 hours, breaking a world record.

He spent the rest of the war serving in the Army forecasting service. During World War I, Wegener was drafted into the German army but was soon wounded in combat. He spent the rest of the war serving in the Army forecasting service. During his long bed-ridden convalescence, Wegener developed his ideas on continental drift which stemmed from his curiosity about the way certain coastlines seem to fit together like jigsaw puzzles.

In December 1910 Wegener wrote to his future wife, “Doesn't the east coast of South America fit exactly against the west coast of Africa, as if they had once been joined? This is an idea I'll have to pursue." In 1915, Wegener published The Origin of Continents and Oceans, his main contribution to the scientific community.

The book was the first work to suggest the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics.

The idea was not new. It had been suggested by a Dutch cartographer, Abraham Ortelius, who suggested that one large continent had been ripped apart by natural disasters.

He called the supercontinent Pangaea, Greek for all lands. Wegener hypothesized that all present continents were originally one vast land mass, over 300 million years ago. He called the supercontinent Pangaea, Greek for all lands. Pangaea 225+ million years ago

Wegener proposed that the landmass gradually separated and drifted apart into several continents. Present day 65 million years ago 135 million years ago 200 million years ago 225+ million years ago

Unlike his predecessors who also suspected that present continents resulted from continental drift, Wegener offered evidence to support his theory.

Evidence #1: the way certain continents fit together like a jigsaw (coast of Brazil and Africa’s Gulf of Guinea).

Evidence #2: the presence of coal deposits in South Pole regions Evidence #3: fossils of identical plants and animals found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean Evidence #4: matching rock strata in Appalachian Mountains of North America with Scottish Highlands Evidence #5: fossils of tropical plants found on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen

Unfortunately, most of Wegener’s ideas were rejected with considerable hostility until the early 1960’s. He continued to lecture and argue that continents had changed over time and were still in the process of changing. Alfred Lothar Wegener’s geological theory of plate tectonics is now considered one of the most important and far-reaching theories of all times.

In 1912, the year of his continental-drift presentations, Wegener made his second trip to Greenland. His four-man team became the first to overwinter on the ice cap. The following spring, they barely survived the longest crossing of the great ice sheet ever made, trekking 750 miles of barren snow with ice rising to heights of 10,000 feet.

During 1906 to 1930, Wegener made 4 polar expeditions to Greenland. One goal was to measure the thickness of arctic ice using new techniques. Another initiative was to discover and calculate the rate of drift of Greenland.

Wegener (left) and an Innuit guide This is one of the last photographs of Wegener taken during his final expedition in Greenland. Wegener (left) and an Innuit guide photo courtesy USGS

In 1980 the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research was founded in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Bibliography Kaufman, Yoram. On the shoulders of giants. (date). [Online]. Available:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/Wegener/ Watson, J. Alfred Lothar Wegener: moving continents. (1999 May 5). [Online]. Available:http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/wegener.html