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Abraham Ortelius
Ortelius was the first to conclude that the continents drifted relative to each other, he used fossils and different species to support his theory, similar to Alfred Wegener, except earlier. Others thought this theory was unreasonable at the time, because they were unsure of how the drifting of continents occurred. -
Alfred Wegener (Continental Drift Theory)
Alfred Wegener was a geophysicist and meteorologist, he proposed that all the continents were once combined together to form a super continent. To support his theory he used the grooves in sediments that were left behind by glaciers and the remnants of plant species. Scientists rejected his theory because once again, how this happened was still unknown. -
Arthur Holmes (Convection Currents)
Arthur Holmes was the first to discover convection currents, which are located under the Earth's crust. In this layer, magma is heated, which rises then cools, in a circular pattern, which causes movement in the mantle. -
Mapping of Earth's Crust
Seismographs allowed scientists, such as Kiyoo Wadati and Hugo Benioff to study and map the Earth's geography. They noticed that earthquakes mainly occurred close to ocean trenches and ridges. Their work wasn't very popular, until the 1960's where the topic of continental drift was more popular. -
Allan V. Cox
Cox was a geophysicist who worked on geomagnetic reversals to support the theory of plate tectonics. He used a method called potassium-argon dating, after he paired up with others, he was successful in creating a geomagnetic polarity time scale. Which is a schedule when the magnetic fields of Earth reverse polarity. Since the schedule fit perfectly with Drummond and Vine's theory, scientists thought reversals were reasonable. -
Harry Hess (Seafloor Spreading)
Harry Hess proposed that the seafloor moves and carries the continents with it as it expands from a central axis at about 4-9 cm a year. His evidence to support this is that basaltic magma rises out from these cracks and slowly pushes the older crust out of the way. -
Lawrence Morely (Ocean Floor Magnetic Patterns)
Lawrence Morely is known for studying the magnetic patterns that are located on the ocean floor. The igneous rock formed a pattern that would change based on the Earth's magnetic field. Because this occurred after continental drift was proven to be accurate, scientists had no objections on his studies. -
Drummond Hoyle Matthews
Drummond Hoyle Matthews helped bring together the various ideas that supported plate tectonics, such as sea floor spreading, polarity reversal and magnetic currents. Using all the research that was gathered over the decades. Matthews presented the complete concept of plate tectonics to explain why pieces of the Earth's crust are always in motion.
