Who opposed Alfred Wegener and Why?

At first Alfred Wegener's idea about continental drift were rejected. It was not until the 1960's where scientists began to except his ideas. One of the largest geographic association called "American Association of Petroleum Geologists" criticized his ideas. His father-in- law who was a famous meteorologist also criticize his ideas. Geophysicists and American geologists such as George Gaylord Simpson and sir Harold Jeffrey also rejected his ideas about continental drift.

They first rejected him because he was not able to find an adequate mechanism to explain continental drift. Later, when he suggested two mechanisms such as "Pohlflucht" which means "flight from the poles," explains why continents seemed to drift towards the equator. Another mechanism was that explained that the tidal force was moving the continents. Even after having those mechanisms, his ideas were disapproved. These people rejected Alfred Wegener's ideas because they thought that the tidal force was too weak to move the continents. Alfred Wegener's lack of age and lack of experience in geology was another reason why his hypothesis was rejected.

After Wegener's death scientists started to accept his hypothesis. Geologists like Harry Hammond Hess found proof of accepting the concept of continental drift. He proposed an idea of seafloor spreading. Paleomagnetism was developed in the 1950s which showed "that rocks in different continents appeared to have different directions of magnetization, as if continents had drifted apart from each other." His ideas of seafloor explains that "the ocean floor is constantly being created at underwater ridges in the middle of the oceans, spreading outwards, and being consumed in trenches underneath the continents." At last in the 1960s the continental drift had began to be accepted by the entire earth science community. It took a lot of time for Wegener's hypothesis to become the foundation for a revolution for geologist, but it was accepted later.