Alfred Wegener

Hello, my name is Alfred Wegener. I was born on November 1st, 1880, in Berlin, Germany. Even as a boy, my head was full of questions about the world around me. I loved science, especially studying the weather and gazing up at the stars. I was so fascinated by the night sky that I went to university and earned my degree in astronomy in 1905. But even with a degree in studying stars, my heart was truly in meteorology, which is the science of weather. I also dreamed of exploring the most remote, unknown parts of our planet. I wanted to understand how everything on Earth worked, from the clouds above to the ground beneath my feet.

My dream of exploration came true. From 1906 to 1908, I joined my first big expedition to the icy landscapes of Greenland. It was an amazing adventure. To study the polar air, my team and I flew huge kites and weather balloons high into the freezing cold sky. It was challenging work, but I learned so much. After I returned, I became a teacher of meteorology, sharing what I knew with students. Then, around the year 1910, something happened that changed my life. I was looking at a world map, and I noticed something very peculiar. The coastline of South America looked like it could fit perfectly against the coast of Africa, just like two pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

That one little observation on the map sparked a huge idea in my mind. If the continents looked like they fit together, maybe they once were together. I started searching for more clues to see if my idea was right. I discovered that fossils of the very same ancient plants and animals were found on continents that are now separated by thousands of miles of ocean. How could that be? The only way it made sense was if the lands had once been connected. In 1912, I presented my new theory, which I called 'continental drift.' I suggested that long ago, all the continents were joined into one giant supercontinent. I gave it a name: Pangaea, which means 'all lands' in Greek. I explained that over millions of years, this supercontinent broke apart, and the pieces slowly drifted to where they are today. I put all of my evidence and ideas into a book called The Origin of Continents and Oceans, which was published in 1915.

I was very excited about my theory, but most other scientists at the time did not agree with me. They thought my idea of continents moving around was silly and impossible. They would ask me, 'What enormous force could possibly be strong enough to push an entire continent across the planet?' That was a question I couldn't answer. I had found plenty of evidence that the continents had moved, but I couldn't explain the science behind how they moved. Even though almost everyone criticized my work, I felt sure that the evidence pointed to the truth. I didn't give up, and I continued to look for more proof to support my theory of continental drift.

In 1930, I returned to Greenland for my final expedition. The work was very difficult in the harsh, icy conditions. I even celebrated my 50th birthday there. But shortly after, I was lost in a terrible blizzard and did not survive. I lived to be 50 years old. For many years after I was gone, my idea of continental drift was mostly ignored or forgotten by the scientific world. But decades later, new technology allowed scientists to explore the deep ocean floor. They found amazing new information that proved my theory had been correct all along. Today, the idea of continental drift is a very important part of a bigger theory called plate tectonics. This science helps us understand how our planet is always changing, and it explains everything from earthquakes to volcanoes.