What is Alfred Wegener?
{{Infobox Scientist |name = Alfred Wegener |box_width = |image = Alfred_Wegener_ca.1924-30.jpg |image_size = 200px |caption = Alfred Wegener, about 1925 |birth_date = 1 November 1880 |birth_place = [[Berlin, Germany]] |death_date = 13 November 1930 |death_place = [[Greenland]] |citizenship = |nationality = [[Germany|German]] |field = [[meteorology]]<br/>[[geology]] |work_institutions = |alma_mater = [[University of Berlin]] |known_for = [[continental drift]]}} [[File:Gondwana fossil map ger.png|thumb|right|250px|Fossil records suggesting that continents now separated were once together: see [[Pangaea]]]] [[File:Antonio Snider-Pellegrini Opening of the Atlantic.jpg|thumb|right|250px|First known illustration of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, by Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, 1858.]] [[File:Alfred-Wegener-Gedenktafel, Wallstraße 42, Berlin-Mitte, 533-639.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Commemorative plaque on Wegener's former school in Wallstrasse]] '''Alfred Lothar Wegener''' (1 November 1880 – 13 November 1930) was a [[Germany|German]] [[scientist]], [[geophysics|geophysist]] and [[meteorologist]].<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html|title=Alfred Wegener|work=ucmp.berkeley.edu|access-date=4 December 2010}}</ref> He is most notable for his theory of [[continental drift]], which he proposed in December 1912.<ref>Wegener, Alfred 1912. Die Entstehung der Kontinente. ''Geologische Rundschau'' (in German) '''3''' (4): 276–292.</ref><ref>Wegener, Alfred 1966. ''The origin of continents and oceans''. New York: Dover. {{ISBN|0-486-61708-4}}. Translated from the fourth revised German edition by John Biram.</ref> This was the idea that the [[continent]]s were slowly drifting around the [[Earth]]. He also had ideas about why the continents drift, which other scientists thought were impossible. His hypothesis was not accepted until the 1950s. Then several discoveries gave evidenc