A German
meteorologist who developed the theory of
continental drift in 1912 when he noticed that the coastlines of the
continents bordering the
Atlantic Ocean seemed to have once fit together.
When he published his
theory, it was attacked by the scientific community. Because he had no mechanism to explain his theory, Wegener spent much of his life defending his idea.
He spent his fiftieth year in
Greenland on an meteorologic
expedition. A small group of researchers led by Wegener set out to get supplies to a research station but everyone in the group turned back due to severe weather except Wegener and another member of the group. The two reached the station, but died trying to return to base camp. Wegener's body was found the next summer. He died never knowing the
mechanism that would prove his theory to the scientific community.
Wegener's theory was finally proven by
Harry Hess who proposed the mechanism of sea floor
spreading which explained how the continents moved. The theory of continental drift eventually become known as
plate tectonics.