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Continental Drift
Mon Mar 21, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
Most of us are pretty familiar with the theory of continental drift—that we are actually on terrestrial surfboards floating over molten rock. But that theory was actually conceived by a meteorologist—and he’s known for a lot more than that! Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Alfred Lother Wegener was born in Berlin, Germany in 1880, and switched to weather after getting a Ph D in astronomy. In 1906, Alfred, along with brother Kurt, stayed aloft in an observation balloon for 52 straight hours, which was a world record, even in the days before Guinness.
Also in 1906, Wegener signed on for a 2-year stint in Greenland, on a Danish expedition, where he used for his observations not only kites, but—you guessed it-- balloons. After this, he published a textbook that explored ice crystals and supercooled droplets, and became a lecturer in meteorology at the University of Marburg. Intrigued by the way the continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, he published a short paper in 1912 about the “Origins of the Continents and the Oceans” He also published a book about the history of climate with eminent climatologist Wladimir Koppen, who also happened to be his father-in-law.
But Wegener’s wandering days were not over. In 1930, he headed a 21-member expedition back to Greenland to study ice cap climate. In September, he led a team of 14 with supplies to restock the camp at Eismitte. Sometime after November, Wegener and Rasmus Villumusen set off to return to base, but never made it. Wegener’s body was found on May 12 of the following year; Villumusen was never found.
Today, the Polar research facility in Bremerhaven, Germany is called the Alfred Wegener Institute.
The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru of America. We are a program of the Mount Washington Observatory.
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