Continental-drift opus turns 100
One hundred years ago this year, the legendary German explorer, geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener published his milestone book The Origin of Continents and Oceans. His theory of continental drift was initially viewed as heresy by the scientific community, yet his book was later translate...
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ftunivromairis:oai:iris.uniroma1.it:11573/804963 2024-02-11T10:04:23+01:00 Continental-drift opus turns 100 ROMANO, MARCO Cifelli, Richard L. Romano, Marco Cifelli, Richard L. 2015 STAMPA http://hdl.handle.net/11573/804963 https://doi.org/10.1038/526043e eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/26432236 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000362095100027 volume:526 issue:7571 firstpage:43 lastpage:43 numberofpages:1 journal:NATURE http://hdl.handle.net/11573/804963 doi:10.1038/526043e info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-84943163662 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess continental drift geographic and geological phenomena North America info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2015 ftunivromairis https://doi.org/10.1038/526043e 2024-01-17T17:57:40Z One hundred years ago this year, the legendary German explorer, geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener published his milestone book The Origin of Continents and Oceans. His theory of continental drift was initially viewed as heresy by the scientific community, yet his book was later translated into many languages and updated regularly until 1929. For his opus, Wegener assembled an array of geological, palaeontological and geophysical data. They are best explained, he argued, by hypothesizing that major landmasses eventually broke apart and went their separate ways. After his death, his ideas were largely forgotten until the 1960s, when geophysicists demonstrated the phenomenon of sea-floor spreading. Plate tectonics has since gained acceptance as a synthetic theory with huge explanatory power. Wegener died in 1930 while exploring in Greenland. Buried in the ice, his body has sailed westwards at a rate of about 2 centimetres per year on the back of the North American plate. He would have been glad to know that it will have travelled some 20 kilometres in a million years' time — in accordance with his visionary theory. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Sapienza Università di Roma: CINECA IRIS Greenland Nature 526 7571 43 43 |
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Sapienza Università di Roma: CINECA IRIS |
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English |
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continental drift geographic and geological phenomena North America |
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continental drift geographic and geological phenomena North America ROMANO, MARCO Cifelli, Richard L. Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
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continental drift geographic and geological phenomena North America |
description |
One hundred years ago this year, the legendary German explorer, geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener published his milestone book The Origin of Continents and Oceans. His theory of continental drift was initially viewed as heresy by the scientific community, yet his book was later translated into many languages and updated regularly until 1929. For his opus, Wegener assembled an array of geological, palaeontological and geophysical data. They are best explained, he argued, by hypothesizing that major landmasses eventually broke apart and went their separate ways. After his death, his ideas were largely forgotten until the 1960s, when geophysicists demonstrated the phenomenon of sea-floor spreading. Plate tectonics has since gained acceptance as a synthetic theory with huge explanatory power. Wegener died in 1930 while exploring in Greenland. Buried in the ice, his body has sailed westwards at a rate of about 2 centimetres per year on the back of the North American plate. He would have been glad to know that it will have travelled some 20 kilometres in a million years' time — in accordance with his visionary theory. |
author2 |
Romano, Marco Cifelli, Richard L. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
ROMANO, MARCO Cifelli, Richard L. |
author_facet |
ROMANO, MARCO Cifelli, Richard L. |
author_sort |
ROMANO, MARCO |
title |
Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
title_short |
Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
title_full |
Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
title_fullStr |
Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Continental-drift opus turns 100 |
title_sort |
continental-drift opus turns 100 |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11573/804963 https://doi.org/10.1038/526043e |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/26432236 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000362095100027 volume:526 issue:7571 firstpage:43 lastpage:43 numberofpages:1 journal:NATURE http://hdl.handle.net/11573/804963 doi:10.1038/526043e info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-84943163662 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/526043e |
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Nature |
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526 |
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7571 |
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