Talk:Alfred Wegener

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Alfred Wegener article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 90 days

Biography: Science and Academia

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

Geology Mid‑importance

	Geology portal Talk:Alfred Wegener is part of WikiProject Geology, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use geology resource. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.GeologyWikipedia:WikiProject GeologyTemplate:WikiProject GeologyGeology articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

History of Science Mid‑importance

	History of science portal This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.History of ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject History of ScienceTemplate:WikiProject History of Sciencehistory of science articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Arctic

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arctic, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Arctic on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArcticWikipedia:WikiProject ArcticTemplate:WikiProject ArcticArctic articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Germany Mid‑importance

	Germany portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Germany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GermanyWikipedia:WikiProject GermanyTemplate:WikiProject GermanyGermany articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Physics: Biographies Mid‑importance

	Physics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Physics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhysicsWikipedia:WikiProject PhysicsTemplate:WikiProject Physicsphysics articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Biographies Taskforce.

Astronomy Low‑importance

	Astronomy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Astronomy, which collaborates on articles related to Astronomy on Wikipedia.AstronomyWikipedia:WikiProject AstronomyTemplate:WikiProject AstronomyAstronomy articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Children[edit]

he had 10 kids — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.172.206.214 (talk) 14:47, April 27, 2021 (UTC)

Misleading Statement[edit]

At the end of this wiki, there is this statement which I believe is misleading or inaccurate:

"With the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in 1993, it became possible to measure continental drift directly." Ref #32

Reference #32, Brady Haran (4 June 2003). "The millimetre men". BBC News UK. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2011.

There are two problems with the statement:

1. GPS does not measure continental drift "directly"

2. Continental drift was first measured in 1970

My understanding is that the radio astronomy technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is used to relate the Celestial and Terrestrial reference frames, and it is the relationship between the two, that is how continental drift is in fact measured. Therefore, using GPS to measure continental drift, is an indirect method, because it is dependent upon the product of the work done using VLBI.

The first measurements of continental drift were made using VLBI in 1970 by a team of scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and MIT’s Haystack Observatory. A book by Donald Harvey Tarling, and Maureen P Tarling (originally written by Alan R. Hargreaves, one of scientists involved in the measurements) is titled "Continental drift : a study of the Earth's moving surface" and includes reference(s) to the experiments.

I hope this clarifies, what I believe is an incorrect and misleading statement about how continental drift is measured. 70.24.155.15 (talk) 05:37, 13 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

english translations of his 1915 book[edit]

quotation from World War I: Nevertheless, he was able in 1915 to complete the first version of his major work, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane ("The Origin of Continents and Oceans"). His brother Kurt remarked that Alfred Wegener's motivation was to "reestablish the connection between geophysics on the one hand and geography and geology on the other, which had become completely ruptured because of the specialized development of these branches of science."

I propose to add the following:

The second, revised edition appeared in 1920. The third (1922) edition was translated and published by Methuen. The fourth (1929), revised edition was translated (by John Biram) and appeared in 1966.^[1]

178.202.73.183 (talk) 08:16, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There should be something about Wegener's advocacy (in 1921) of the impact hypothesis for lunar craters. This was a controversial idea at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.31.67.35 (talk) 21:30, 12 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ archive.org: The origin of continents and oceans, bibliographical note.

Semi-protected edit request on 31 March 2024[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In paragraph 3 paleomagnetism is spelt palaeomagnetism 99.72.223.88 (talk) 16:44, 31 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: That's just an alternative spelling (American vs. British English). No reason to change it. Liu1126 (talk) 20:13, 31 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] rchive.org: The origin of continents and oceans, bibliographical note.

[1]