Alfred Wegener

German meteorologist and geologist

• Born: November 1, 1880; Berlin, Germany
• Died: November 1930; Greenland

Wegener’s theories gave scientific credence to the idea of continental drift. Wegener concluded that the continents were once part of a so-called supercontinent known as Pangaea sometime during the Mesozoic era.

Primary field: Earth sciences

Specialties: Geology; meteorology

Early Life

Alfred Lothar Wegener was born in Berlin, Germany, on November 1, 1880. As a young man, Wegener dreamed of adventure and of being an explorer. He was physically active and a skilled mountaineer, and would hike in the Alps while attending the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Wegener graduated from secondary school in 1899. He then studied mathematics and the natural sciences at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, where he focused especially on astronomy. Between 1901 and 1902, Wegener volunteered in the Queen Elizabeth Guard-Grenadier Third Regiment. He earned his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1904; his doctoral dissertation, titled “The Alfonsine Tables for the Use of a Modern Calculator,” focused on astronomy.

Wegener’s first adventurous exploits took place in April 1906. He had moved to Lindenberg with his brother, where they worked together at the Royal Prussian Aeronautic Observatory. They were able to assist in atmospheric experiments, and completed a record-breaking 52-hour hot-air balloon flight. That same year, Wegener had the chance to participate in his first polar expedition to the northeastern coast of Greenland with a group of explorers from Denmark.

Among the party was Russian meteorologist Wladimir Köppen, who would become one of Wegener’s mentors and an important collaborator. Wegener married Köppen’s daughter, Else, in 1913. During the two-year journey through Greenland, Wegener learned how to survive in and travel through polar environments. The polar expeditions provided opportunities for Wegener to gain meteorological information, such as measurements of ice thickness.

Life’s Work

Wegener’s academic career began in 1908 at the University of Marberg, where he taught courses in astronomy and meteorology. While looking at a map of the world in 1910, he noticed the correspondence between the coastlines of the continents separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Although he was struck by how the opposing coastlines seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, he was not convinced at the time that continental drift was the probable explanation.

In 1911, Wegener came across information describing a theoretical land bridge that once linked Brazil with Africa. This discovery renewed his interest in continental drift—which describes the phenomena of the formation, change, and movement of the continents across the Earth’s crust. He began to conduct research in geology and paleontology in order to learn more. The information he gathered in this research convinced him that continental drift was worth consideration. That year also saw the publication of his first book, Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere.

In January 1912, Wegener addressed the Geological Association in Frankfurt, Germany, with a talk called “The Geophysical Basis of the Evolution of the Large-scale Features of the Earth’s Crust (Continents and Oceans).” He spoke again a few days later to the Society for the Advancement of Natural Science in Marburg on the topic of “Horizontal Displacements of the Continents.” His talks rejected the land-bridge theory that connected continents in favor of the theory of continental drift, which suggests that landmasses actually moved away from each other over a long period of time.

Later that year, Wegener’s research was interrupted by another journey to Greenland, this time with Johann Peter Koch, Vigfus Sigurdsson, and Lars Larsen. The purpose of the 1912 trip was to cross the island at its widest point. Using Icelandic ponies, the group was able to spend the winter at a camp on the inland ice sheet. The expedition nearly ended in disaster when they traversed the inland glacier; they had nearly run out of food, and without the help of a group of Eskimos, they might never have made it. Wegener’s third expedition in 1929 was a preliminary scouting trip for an ambitious 1930 trip, during which he hoped to climb to the interior ice sheet.

Wegener’s scientific work was interrupted again when World War I began in 1914. He was drafted into the Queen Elisabeth Grenadier Guards’ Third Regiment as a junior officer, and was sent into the field. Despite two injuries, he continued to serve the German military as a field meteorologist, working in Dorpat, Estonia, at the German university. When the war ended, he became head of the Department of Theoretical Meteorology at the German Marine Observatory in Hamburg, where he began collaborations with Köppen on an important book, Climates of the Geological Past (1924).

Wegener’s most famous work, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans, 1924), was published in German in 1915. The book would go through three more German editions and was translated into French, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and English. His central argument brought together geophysics, geography, and geology in order to examine and explain Earth’s early geography. This was an important step during a time when these fields were largely divorced from one another by specialist studies. Wegener did not believe that evidence from any one of the Earth sciences could substantiate continental drift, and saw the importance in looking to all fields for answers.

After 1922, scientists began to investigate the question of continental drift more extensively. In his own research, Wegener found empirical evidence for the shift of Greenland. Like the science of its time, the 1929 edition of The Origin of Continents and Oceans focuses on moving beyond an outline of continental drift theory. Ultimately, Wegener felt that his role in examining continental drift was limited because the questions raised by his research were too big for him to address alone.

The theory of continental drift, as Wegener understood it, centered on the idea that continental crusts are based on a lighter kind of rock, known as sial. Sima, the rock that makes up the ocean floor, is denser. This idea had been put forth first by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, but it was Wegener who used the theory to argue that the sial layer was able to float on the sima, and was thus able to move across it. After establishing that the less-dense layer was capable of movement, Wegener also tried to explain why continents move. One force that he believed was the cause of continental movement was pohlflucht, or pole-fleeing—a force created by the rotation of the Earth and causing the continents to shift toward the equator. Wegener also argued that the force of the tides caused the continents to move laterally.

As Wegener’s work continued, he realized that these two forces alone were not enough to explain the movement of the continents. In 1929, he hypothesized that currents in the Earth’s magma may also be responsible for landmass movement, an explanation that remains in the twenty-first century. Additionally, he pointed to the Atlantic Ocean as an example of a widening gap between separating continents, and argued that continental movement had created mountain ranges such as the Alps and Himalayas.

Wegener’s tragic death occurred during his fourth journey to Greenland in 1930. The journey’s scientific goals included meteorological and geophysical experiments on the ice sheet. The group attempted to move across the ice sheet using motorized sleds, dog sleds, and Icelandic ponies. Unfortunately, due to problems caused by ice conditions, equipment failure, and supply shortages, the expedition became much more difficult than expected. After a heroic attempt to resupply a way station that had been cut off by weather and ice conditions, Wegener died while attempting to return.

Impact

In spite of Wegener’s tragic end, he and his companions gathered valuable scientific information about polar regions through their explorations of Greenland. He pioneered research methods in polar science, as well as seismic methods for measuring the thickness of the ice sheet. While this exploratory work was important, it was Wegener’s research on continental drift that made the greatest impact on the history of science. For years, geologists were skeptical of his theories, but over time his theories have made significant impacts on climatology and other Earth sciences. American geologist Harry Hammond Hess and geophysicist Robert Sinclair Dietz introduced the theory of seafloor spreading in the early 1960s, building upon the basic premise of Wegener’s drift theory. The theory of plate tectonics, which emerged in the 1930s, also built upon Wegener’s legacy. The theory of continental drift, with its subsequent modifications, remains one of the most significant theories in Earth science. Although not without its problems, it is the most complete theory of global tectonics in existence.

Bibliography

Gramling, Carolyn. “September 21, 1930: Alfred Wegener Begins a Fateful Polar Expedition.” Earth 55.9 (2010): 72–75. Print. Describes Wegener’s last expedition to Greenland to study polar air circulation patterns.

Hughes, Patrick. “The Meteorologist Who Started a Revolution.” Weatherwise 47.2 (1994): 29–30. Discusses Wegener’s life and career. Discusses Wegener’s papers promoting the theory of continental drift.

McCoy, Roger M. Ending in Ice: The Revolutionary Idea and Tragic Expedition of Alfred Wegener. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print. Presents a compelling biography of Wegener. Describes the development of the theory of continental drift and Wegener’s four research expeditions to Greenland.

Yount, Lisa. Alfred Wegener: Creator of the Continental Drift Theory. New York: Chelsea, 2009. Print. Describes the life and work of Wegener, continental drift, and the critical reception of Wegener’s theory.