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Abraham Ortelius
Abraham noticed that the coastlines of the continents were similar and he suggested that the continents were once together and were torn away from each other over time. The scientific community didn't agree because they believed that he did not have a sufficient amount of evidence. -
Alfred Wegener
Alfred proposed the theory that at one point in time all the continents were a "supercontinent" he called this supercontinent, a Pangaea. He suggested that the continents drifted apart through time because he found the exact same fossils in Africa, S.America, India and Antartica. -
Arthur Holmes
Arthur proposed the theory that convection in the mantle is what is causing the continental drift as it causes the continents to drift away from one another. -
Henry Hess
Henry Hess proposed the theory that ocean were growing out from their centers due to molten basalt coming out from the Earth's mantle which created a new seafloor away from the ridge. -
Lawrence Morely
Morely believed that the rocks on the ocean floor were imprinted with the record of the direction and intensity of the earth's magnetic field. This theory was accepted because there was a sufficient amount of evidence -
Drummond Hoyle Matthews
Matthews believed that the sea floor was spreading which contributed to the continental drift. He believed that mid-ocean ridges compromised of streaks altering magnetic polarity. This theory was agreed with because it back up Henry Hess's theory. -
Federick J Vine
Vine believed that the sea floor spreads out like a conveyer belt from the mid-ocean ridges, he also believed that the sea floor should act like a tape recorder. The reason for that was that the basalt records earth's magnetic field. Although, this theory was not immediately accepted because there was insufficient evidence. -
Robert S Dietz
Robert S Dietz was an advocate for the "sea floor spreading" theory. He based his point on when he discovered a fracture zone in the ocean floor, which led him to believing that the new crustal material was formed at the mid-oceanic ideas and spread outward every year. This theory was agreed with because he had proven Henry Hess's theory and there was enough evidence.
