The Current Shape Of Earths Landmasses Was First Proposed...

Question 1 The idea of Continental Drift to explain the current shape of Earths landmasses was first proposed by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. He proposed the idea to highlight the geometrical coincidences between America and Europe-Africa. In his work Thesaurus Geographicus he suggested that the Americas were â€Å"torn away from Europe and Africa†¦by earthquakes and floods†, and that â€Å"the vestiges of rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three.† Antonio Snider-Pellegrini was a French geographer and scientist who theorized the possibility of continental drift several decades before Alfred Wegener in his publication The Creation and its Mysteries Unveiled. He came to this†¦show more content†¦William Henry Pickering was another who proposed the idea of continental drift before Wegener. In 1907 Pickering suggested that moon was once part of the earth and broke away where the Pacific Ocean now lies. He speculated that America, Asia, Africa, and Europe once formed a single landmass that eventually broke up because of the separation of the moon. Alfred Wegener was a German polar researcher, geophysicist, and meteorologist. During his lifetime he was mainly known for his achievement in meteorology, but after his death he is most remembered for his advancement of the idea of continental drift. In 1912 he theorized that the continents were slowly drifting around the earth. It was not until the 1950s though that his ideas wer e widely accepted. Numerous discoveries at that time, such as paleomagnetism provided strong support for his idea of continental drift. Wegener first thought of this idea by noticing that the landmasses of earth fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Continental shelf of the Americas fit closely to Africa and Europe, and Antarctica, India, Australia, and Madagascar fit next to the southern tip of Africa. Wegener closely analyzed either side of the Atlantic Ocean for rock type, geological structure, and fossils, and noticed a significant similarity between matching sides of the continents, specifically in plant fossils. Alfred