Back Kontinentskuiwing Afrikaans نظرية الانجراف القاري Arabic Deriva continental AST Materiklərin dreyfi nəzəriyyəsi Azerbaijani Континентален дрейф Bulgarian মহাদেশীয় প্রবাহ Bengali/Bangla Dilec'hiadur ar c'hevandiroù Breton Deriva dels continents Catalan Kontinentální drift Czech Kontinentaldrift German
Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time.[1] The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.[2]
The speculation that continents might have "drifted" was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. A pioneer of the modern view of mobilism was the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer.[3][4] The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in his 1915 publication, "The Origin of Continents and Oceans".[5] However, at that time his hypothesis was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism[further explanation needed]. In 1931, the English geologist Arthur Holmes proposed mantle convection for that mechanism.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
pubs.usgs.govwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Oreskes-2002was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kalliope Verbund: Ampferer, Otto (1875–1947)
- ^ Helmut W. Flügel: Die virtuelle Welt des Otto Ampferer und die Realität seiner Zeit. In: Geo. Alp., Vol. 1, 2004.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Wegener-1912was invoked but never defined (see the help page).