1. Alfred Wegener's hypothesis was not accepted by mainstream geology until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.
Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin on 1 November 1880, the youngest of five children, to Richard Wegener and his wife Anna.
Alfred Wegener's father was a theologian and teacher of classical languages at the Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium and Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster.
Alfred Wegener attended school at the Kollnische Gymnasium on Wallstrasse in Berlin, completing his Abitur in 1899, graduating as the best in his class.
Alfred Wegener studied physics, meteorology and astronomy at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, completing two external semesters at Heidelberg and Innsbruck.
Alfred Wegener's teachers included Wilhelm Forster for astronomy and Max Planck for thermodynamics.
Alfred Wegener completed his doctoral dissertation on the subject of applying the astronomical data of Alfonsine tables to contemporary computational methods in 1905 under the supervision of Julius Bauschinger and Wilhelm Forster.
In 1905 Alfred Wegener became an assistant at the Aeronautisches Observatorium Lindenberg near Beeskow.
Alfred Wegener worked there with his brother Kurt, who was likewise a scientist with an interest in meteorology and polar research.
In 1906, Alfred Wegener participated in the first of his four Greenland expeditions, later regarding this experience as a decisive turning point in his life.
Later in 1913, after his return Alfred Wegener married Else Koppen, the daughter of his former teacher and mentor, the meteorologist Wladimir Koppen.
The young pair lived in Marburg, where Alfred Wegener resumed his university lectureship.
In 1919, Alfred Wegener replaced Koppen as head of the Meteorological Department at the German Naval Observatory and moved to Hamburg with his wife and their two daughters.
From 1919 to 1923 Alfred Wegener did pioneering work on reconstructing the climate of past eras, closely in collaboration with Milutin Milankovic, publishing Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit together with his father-in-law, Wladimir Koppen, in 1924.
In 1924 Alfred Wegener was appointed to a professorship in meteorology and geophysics in Graz, a position that was both secure and free of administrative duties.
Alfred Wegener concentrated on physics and the optics of the atmosphere as well as the study of tornadoes.
Alfred Wegener had studied tornadoes for several years by this point, publishing the first thorough European tornado climatology in 1917.
In November 1926 Alfred Wegener presented his continental drift theory at a symposium of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in New York City, again earning rejection from everyone but the chairman.
Alfred Wegener felt personally responsible for the expedition's success, as the German government had contributed $120,000.
Alfred Wegener died in his tent around 90 miles from and was hastily buried with his skis stuck upright in the snow.
Six months later, on 12 May 1931, Alfred Wegener's skis were discovered.
Expedition members built a pyramid-shaped mausoleum in the ice and snow, and Alfred Wegener's body was laid to rest.
Alfred Wegener had been 50 years of age and a heavy smoker, and it was believed that he had died of heart failure brought on by overexertion.
Alfred Wegener first thought of this idea by noticing that the different large landmasses of the Earth almost fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Alfred Wegener presented his continental drift hypothesis on 6 January 1912.
Alfred Wegener analysed both sides of the Atlantic Ocean for rock type, geological structures and fossils.
Alfred Wegener noticed that there was a significant similarity between matching sides of the continents, especially in fossil plants.
From 1912, Alfred Wegener publicly advocated the existence of "continental drift", arguing that all the continents were once joined in a single landmass and had since drifted apart.
Alfred Wegener supposed that the mechanisms causing the drift might be the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation or the astronomical precession.
The one American edition of Alfred Wegener's work, published in 1925, was written in "a dogmatic style that often results from German translations".
From at least 1910, Alfred Wegener imagined the continents once fitting together not at the current shore line, but 200 m below this, at the level of the continental shelves, where they match well.
Part of the reason Alfred Wegener's ideas were not initially accepted was the misapprehension that he was suggesting the continents had fit along the current coastline.
Alfred Wegener was in the audience for this lecture, but made no attempt to defend his work, possibly because of an inadequate command of the English language.
Alfred Wegener has been mischaracterised as a lone genius whose theory of continental drift met widespread rejection until well after his death.
Alfred Wegener was then recognised as the founding father of one of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century.