Earth & Cosmos / Earth, Climate & Environment

Continental drift

Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that continents move, citing matching coastlines, fossils and rocks across oceans; no mechanism was known.

Wegener's book (1915) was widely rejected because he could not explain what pushes continents. Sea-floor evidence in the 1950s and 60s vindicated him. It is a classic case of a correct idea waiting for measurement.