Stavros
11-01-2013, 06:39 PM
November 1st 1880, Berlin, German Empire – A fifth and final child is born to theologian, classics teacher and orphanage director Richard Wegener and his wife, Anna. As a youngster, Alfred Lothar Wegener would take an interest in the sciences and go on to study astronomy at the University of Berlin. Whilst completing his PhD, he would become interested in paleoclimatology and made the first of four journeys into the savage landscape of Greenland to study polar weather.
At the outbreak of World War I, Wegener enlisted for the Kaiser’s army and was wounded twice in the line of duty. During his recuperative period in 1915, Wegener published The Origin of Continents and Oceans, in which he presented extensive evidence that all of the Earth's continents were at one time connected in a landmass he called Urkontinent , now known by the Greek Pangaea. He also proposed the first theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) to explain the current location of the Earth’s landforms. This was tantamount to geological sacrilege.
(from Oil & Gas IQ) with a link to an audio-visual explanation:
Pangaea Animation on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/14258924)
At the outbreak of World War I, Wegener enlisted for the Kaiser’s army and was wounded twice in the line of duty. During his recuperative period in 1915, Wegener published The Origin of Continents and Oceans, in which he presented extensive evidence that all of the Earth's continents were at one time connected in a landmass he called Urkontinent , now known by the Greek Pangaea. He also proposed the first theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) to explain the current location of the Earth’s landforms. This was tantamount to geological sacrilege.
(from Oil & Gas IQ) with a link to an audio-visual explanation:
Pangaea Animation on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/14258924)