Alfred Wegener
1880 – 1930 · aged 50
German climatologist and geophysicist (1880–1930)
- Born
- 1 Nov 1880 · Berlin
- Died
- 1930 · Greenland
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 1 Nov 1880BornBorn in Berlin
- 1913AwardCarl-Ritter-Medal
- 1914 – 1918WarWorld War I
- 1924 – 1930RoleProfessor
- 1930DiedDied in Greenland
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1880 – 1930).
- 18961896 Summer Olympics
- 1898Spanish–American War
- 1904 – 1905Russo-Japanese War
- 1915 – 1923Armenian genocide
- 1917Balfour Declaration
- 1917February Revolution
- 1917October Revolution
- 1917 – 1922Russian Civil War
- 1919 – 1920Paris Peace Conference
- 1920Treaty of Versailles
Biography
Alfred Lothar Wegener (German: [ˈʔalfʁeːt ˈveːɡənɐ]; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
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 continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth (German: Kontinentalverschiebung).
His hypothesis was not accepted by mainstream geology until the 1960s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.
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 were the first to overwinter on the inland Greenland ice sheet and the first to bore ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.
Text from the Wikipedia article Alfred Wegener, CC BY-SA 4.0
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