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Abraham Ortelius
Came with the continental drift theory. His evidence: The Americas, Eurasia, and Africa fit together like a jig-saw puzzle. -
Nicolaus Steno
The Law if Superposition: each layer of rock is older than the layer above it. -
James Hutton
Used Steno’s Law of Superposition. It compares rock layers to rocks above and below the rock.
Evidence: Hutton found granite penetrating metaphoric schists, in a way which indicated that the granite had been molten at the time. This showed to him that granite formed from cooling of molten rock, not precipitation out of water as others at the time believed, and that the granite must be younger than the schists. -
Alfred Wegener
1912: The Continental Drift Theory
Evidence: Browsing the university library he came across a scientific paper that listed fossils of identical plants and animals found on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Intrigued by this information, Wegener began to look for, and find, more cases of similar organisms separated by great oceans. The continents fit together like a jig-saw puzzle. -
Arthur Holmes
Mantle goes under thermal convection. As magma is heated it tends to rise and then it cools and sinks again. At the time it received very little attention. -
Harry Hess
Sea Floor Spreading Theory
Evidence: 1962. This led to his discovery of submerged and curiously flat-topped mountains that he named “guyots”. It also produced thousands of miles of echo-sounding surveys of the ocean floor. -
Dan McKenzie
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Evidence: He had a mathematical equation to back it up.
