Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift

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Alfred Wegener was a German born scientist who, one day while looking at a world map, noticed that the coastline of the continents, separated by the Atlantic Ocean seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. This observation, later lead him to hypothesize that the continents were at one time connected. This hypothesis created a heated debate in the scientific world. I will use this essay to provide a brief overview of Wegener’s life, his hypothesis and the criticism he received within the scientific community. Wegener was born in Berlin Germany in 1880. As a young man, Wegener was an adventurous outdoorsman who loved to hike and explore nature and the outside world. Wegener was an excellent snow skier and skilled mountain man. These skills, coupled with the love of the outdoors lead him to complete four polar expeditions to Greenland and also setting 52-hour hot air balloon record for longest flight. Wegener was also very educated. He graduated from secondary school in 1899 and went on to study mathematics and natural sciences at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin w...

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