The Origin of Continents and Oceans

Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and geophysicist, proposed the continental drift hypothesis in his 1915 work, The Origin of Continents and Oceans. He suggested that Earth's continents were once joined as a single supercontinent, Pangaea, which later broke apart and drifted to their current positions. Wegener supported his theory with evidence such as matching coastlines of continents, similar fossil records, and rock strata found on widely separated landmasses.123

Despite presenting compelling evidence, Wegener's hypothesis was largely rejected by the scientific community during his lifetime due to implausible explanations for the driving forces behind continental movement. However, his ideas were later resurrected and became a foundational part of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s.143