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Wegener’s inability to provide an adequate explanation of the forces responsible for continental drift and the prevailing belief that the earth was solid and immovable resulted in the scientific dismissal of his theories.
What is the reason why most geologist rejected Alfred Wegener?
Alfred Wegener produced evidence in 1912 that the continents are in motion, but because he could not explain what forces could move them, geologists rejected his ideas. Almost 50 years later Harry Hess confirmed Wegener’s ideas by using the evidence of seafloor spreading to explain what moved continents.
Why was Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift rejected quizlet?
Wegener’s idea that the continents slowly moved over Earth’s surface became known as continental drift. Why was Wegener’s hypothesis rejected? Because Wegener could not identify the cause of continental drift, most geologists rejected his idea.
What was the major problem with Wegener’s theory of continental drift?
The Problem with the Hypothesis
To his colleagues, his greatest problem was that he had no plausible mechanism for how the continents could move through the oceans. Based on his polar experiences, Wegener suggested that the continents were like icebreaking ships plowing through ice sheets.
What aspects of Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis were rejected to most Earth scientists select all that apply?
What two aspects of Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis were objectionable to most Earth scientists? His inability to identify a credible mechanism for continental drift and his suggestion that larger and sturdier continents broke through thinner oceanic crust like ice breakers cut through ice.
What did other scientists think of Alfred Wegener’s theory?
Other scientists did not believe Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift because they did not see any way that continents could move through the oceanic crust and the mantle, nor did they see evidence that this had happened. They weren’t aware of anything that could cause continents to move.
What was Alfred Wegener’s theory?
Alfred Wegener in Greenland. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s land masses are in constant motion. The realization that Earth’s land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift.
How did Alfred Wegener discover continental drift?
Wegener noticed the similarity in the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once formed a supercontinent, Pangaea, which had split and slowly moved many miles apart over geologic time.
Why did most scientists not agree with the continental drift theory quizlet?
Why did most scientists reject Wegener’s theory for nearly a half century? Most scientists rejected Wegener’s theory because he could not explain the force that pushes or pulls the continents.
Why was Alfred Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift not well accepted by most of the scientific community quizlet?
Why was Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift not at first widely accepted by the scientific community? Because he could not explain how the continents move.
What was Alfred Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis quizlet?
What is the continental drift hypothesis? Proposed by Alfred Wegener, it states that Earth’s continents have moved slowly to their current locations. All the continents were once connected as one landmass that broke apart 250 million years ago. This one landmass is called “Pangea,” meaning “all land.”
Who rejected continental drift theory?
The idea was moonshine, I was informed.” As late as 1953—just five years before Carey introduced the theory of plate tectonics—the theory of continental drift was rejected by the physicist Scheidegger on the following grounds.
Which line of evidence did Alfred Wegener not support continental drift?
Which type of evidence was NOT used by Alfred Wegener to support his continental drift hypothesis? fossil.
When did Alfred Wegener discover continental drift?
If this sounds shocking today, you should put yourself in the shoes of geologists back in 1912, who were much more troubled when a 32-year-old German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, launched his theory of continental drift.
Why did scientists reject the Copernican model when it was published?
Why did many scientists reject the Copernican model when it was published? It was a radical change in people’s understanding of the universe and Earth’s place in it.