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Browsing the library at the University of Marburg, where he was teaching in 19111911 is a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). Events January-June January 1 Northern Territory is separated from South Australia January 3 In London, a shootout between Russian anarchists and the Scots Guard January 10 Major Jimmi, Wegener was struck by the occurrence of identical fossils in geological strata that are now separated by oceans. Orthodox theories at the time posited land bridgeLand bridge is essentially a historical term: it refers to dry land exposed during periods of low sea level (see regression), connecting what are now separate continents or islands. The best-known is the Bering land bridge, which connected Asia and Norths to explain away these anomalies, but Wegener was increasingly convinced that the continents themselves had shifted away from a primal single massive supercontinentA supercontinent is a mass of land comprising more than one continent. Since the definition of continent is arbitrary, the definition of supercontinent is also arbitrary (as is the definition of a subcontinent), but the term refers to a landmass containin, which drifted apart approximately 200 million yearA year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, "Martian year". Seasonal year A seasonal year is the time between successive recurrencess ago, to judge from the fossil evidence. From 19121912 is a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 Establishment of Republic of China. January 6 New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U. January 17 British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four begin the he publicly advocated his theory of "continental drift", arguing that the continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean were drifting apart. Recovery from a war wound gave Wegener time to think. In 1915, in The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), Wegener published the theory that there had once been a giant supercontinent, which he named " Pangaea" ("all-Earth") and drew together evidence from various fields. Expanded editions during the 1920s presented the accumulating evidence. The last edition, just before his untimely death, revealed the significant observation that shallower oceans were geologically younger. The one American edition, published in 1924, provoked such hostility that it was not revised.
Many geologists ridiculed Wegener for his ideas; noting that he could not explain how continents were able to move. North American geologists were particularly dismissive. Only after the mid- 20th century discovery of seafloor spreading did Wegener receive credit, as a developer of the theory of plate tectonics.
The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, established in 1980, honors his name.