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Wegener definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: German geophysicist who proposed the theory of continental drift (1880-1930) [syn: Wegener, Alfred Lothar Wegener]

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Alfred Lothar 1880-1930 German geophysicist & meteorologist

Britannica Concise

German meteorologist and geophysicist. After earning a PhD in astronomy (1905), he became interested in paleoclimatology and traveled to Greenland to research polar air circulation. He formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis, which he presented in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915). His theory won some adherents, but by 1930 most geologists had rejected it because of the implausibility of his postulations for the driving force behind the continents' movement. It was resurrected in the 1960s as part of the theory of plate tectonics. Wegener died during his fourth expedition to Greenland.