Continental jigsaw

Alfred Wegener, 32, German geophysicist, polar researcher and meteorologist, first presents his theory of continental drift on January 6 1912. He notes that Earth’s large landmasses almost fit together like a jigsaw puzzle — the continental shelf of the Americas closely to Africa and Europe; Antarctica, Australia, India and Madagascar next to the tip of Southern Africa — indicating it was once all one big landmass. His analysis of rock type, geological structures and fossils on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean shows a significant similarity between matching sides of the continents, especially in fossil plants. Wegener’s theory is controversial and not widely accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provide strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today’s model of plate tectonics. Wegener estimates the velocity of continental motion at 250cm/year. The current accepted rate for the separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa is about 2.5cm/year