Alfred Wegener and Continental drift It was 1912, and one man named Alfred Wegener was studying a map. He believed that the world looked as though it were one big puzzle, and that the continents could fit together. Then he thought that maybe, a very long time ago, they did. He hatched up a hypothesis. Simply put, his hypothesis proposed that the continents had once been joined, and over time had drifted apart.
He noticed that these finches were similar to other species that were on different islands. This helped him make up the following conclusions; Evolution has occurred, splitting of single species into two or more species, and evolution change is gradual. Many people helped Darwin develop his ideas. The first person was Carolus Linnaeus, he established the modern system of taxonomy that helped group species based
2. Literature Review 2.1 Theoretical Background 2.1.1 The Earth and its Atmosphere In the early twentieth century, a young German scientist named Alfred Wegener, His theory was motivated by the observation that the continents, particularly South America and Africa, seemed to be pieces of a global jig-saw puzzle that had somehow been pulled apart (Asrat, 2006). He reasoned that all land masses were once connected in a gigantic supercontinent he named "Pangaea". The northern part of Pangea is commonly called Laurasia and the southern part Gondwanaland. A single supercontinent that broke apart to form the modern continents is called the theory of continental drift.
This included more than 30 changes between long glacial periods where much of the world’s temperate zones were covered by glaciers and brief warmer interglacial phases where some ice sheets retreated; much like what we are living in today (Holden, 2012). In present day, ice sheets are largely confined to Greenland, Antarctica
This belief of natural selection came from Charles Darwin. Many ideas led him to believe what he believed. One of them was, James Hutton’s ideas about geological change. His theory consisted that sediments, rocks, soil, etc were made after the great flood and new species “rose” from that disaster and that it’s a cycle. Charles Lyell’s theory also shaped his thinking.
It was a new idea with many opportunities for new discoveries and this drew in scientists like Arthor Holmes (1890 - 1965), Harry H. Hess (1906 - 1969), Fredrick J. Vine, Drummond H. Mathews and Lorence W. Morley. Holmes was the first scientist to propose the plate tectonics theory. In 1929 Holmes proposed his theory that the Earth’s crust was broken up into pieces he called plates and these plates are constantly moving causing continental drift (Lecher, 2018). Following Holmes’ theory, Hess developed his theory of what is now called ‘sea floor spreading’ (Cloos, 2018). This is where two plates are forced apart forming Ocean ridges, this theory was further supported with the invention of sonar, which allowed ocean depths to be measured (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018).
Another one was the sightings of UFO’s coming out from the ocean, which was explained to have happened, perhaps because the center of the Earth was populated by extraterrestrial beings, who from time to time emerge from the poles in spacecrafts, perhaps because in the 20th century Hohlwelttheorie was linked with the belief of aliens. Moreover, this theory has also been linked with conspiracies such as that the Nazi specially Hitler knew of an entrance to the interior world at the South Pole, and that Hitler and his colleagues and friends fled there at the end of WWII. In that same wavelength the popular science fiction story “A journey to the Centre of the Earth” by French novelist Jules Verne (1828-1905) has given the theory, its most lasting exposition, since the late 19th century, and in which he describes the discovery of a prehistoric world by explorers who go down a volcano only to find out this interior world, that had its own source of light, water, and flourishing
Aside from this, he also proposed that the Earth rotated on its own axis, taking an entire day to complete a single revolution (Westman, 1998). When we compare and contrast the Copernican and Ptolemaic models of the solar system, we find that the Copernican model was much simpler and had greater explanatory value. It was a much better system for the following reasons. Firstly, the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus was simpler than the geocentric one. There was still a need for epicycles to explain planetary motion as Copernicus postulated that planets moved in circular orbits
The Fission Theory is a commonly believed theory for how the Moon was created. This theory states that the Moon was once part of the Earth, but somehow separated from it. This is believed to have happened in early history times of the solar system. It is believed that the Moon most likely broke off of the Pacific Ocean basin. This is because the Moon 's composition is the same as the Earth 's.
The Geocentric and Heliocentric theory have been a big part of the change in European beliefs as they presented their belief or discovery. Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus are the scientists who have discovered or made their thoughts and beliefs on the geocentric and heliocentric theory and had people believe in these theories. In the way that Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus with the theory of geocentric and heliocentric is how Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus changed the European beliefs. The Catholic Church was a big part on the beliefs as well after they believed in the belief that Galilei made and then Galilei made a mistake and was sent to prison for it and he was sentenced to life, however, he was able to do it on