22.1: Antecedents
- Page ID
- 22788
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The idea that continents can move is a rather audacious notion to emerge in the mind of an human who lives such a short life. Prior to the invention of satellite-based telemetry (GPS), there was not discernible way to directly measure such a thing. Yet various lines of evidence did suggest the notion to various thinkers in the European scientific tradition. A particular prompt came from the mapping of the world’s landmasses as a consequence of the “Age of Exploration.” (That’s a Eurocentric phrase if ever there was one! Sometimes this is called the “Age of Being Explored by Europeans,” since that is how most of the world’s population experienced it.) Once the shapes of other continents were documented, they could be contemplated.
The earliest mention of what could later be called continental drift appears to have been Abraham Ortelius. In 1596, he mused on the shapes of the Atlantic coastlines of the Americas, Europe and Africa. Their shapes were so similar, he suggested that they may have been “torn away… by earthquakes and floods.”
Almost 300 years later, in 1858, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini published his hypothesis of continental drift, using the shapes of the continents as his primary line of evidence, but also citing similar terrestrial fossils on widely separated continents. These lines of evidence would also be invoked by Alfred Wegener.
Did I Get It? - Quiz
Was Alfred Wegener the very first person to come up with the idea that continents could move?
a. No
b. Yes
- Answer
-
a. No