THE ORIGINS OF THE CONTINENTS

Abstract

Some background information and few remarks of introduction are in order. Alfred Wegener hadthe broadest interests, having studied physics, meteorology and astronomy, but not especially geol-ogy, he mostly worked on meteorology and climatology in his short professional life. He participatedin balloon flights and Greenland expeditions. He was a keen observer and his different interestsbenefitted mutually. When he originally conceived the idea of continental drift (apparently from anew atlas with good ocean maps) he hesitated until he learnt about faunal and floral evolutionarytrends and the difficulties paleontologists had to understand them. From then on he collected paleo-climatological and other data and dared to present his ideas and arguments to the ‘‘GeologischeVereinigung’’ (GV) in Frankfurt 1912. A geological laymen trying to explain to the geologistshow the earth evolved! His idea was overwhelmingly rejected, but the strength of his argumentsmade it survive him and to be rehabilitated since the late 1950s.