Top Highlights

• further exploration of the ocean floors in the 1950s and 1960s that showed mid-ocean ridges, evidence in the seafloor of the Earth's changing magnetic field, and proof of seafloor spreading and mantle convection, leading to the theory of plate tectonics
• theory was that the fossils of temperate species found in the arctic regions were carried there by warm water currents. Scientists debunked these theories, but at the time they helped stall Wegener’s theory from gaining acceptance
• not an expert in the field of science in which he was making a hypothesis, and for another, his radical theory threatened conventional and accepted ideas of the time
• because he was making observations that were multidisciplinary, there were more scientists to find fault with them
• One of the biggest flaws of Wegener’s continental drift theory was that he did not have a viable explanation for how continental drift could have occurred. He proposed two different mechanisms, but each was weak and could be disproven.

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