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Wegener's Displacement Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Philip Lake
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Extract

In examining ideas so novel as those of Wegener it is not easy to avoid bias. A moving continent is as strange to us as a moving earth was to our ancestors, and we may be as prejudiced as they were. On the other hand, if continents have moved many former difficulties disappear, and we may be tempted to forget the difficulties of the theory itself and the imperfection of the evidence. Those who study the distribution of animals and plants must be especially subject to this temptation, and it will be instructive to note how far they agree in their demands upon the moving continents.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 59 , Issue 8 , August 1922 , pp. 338 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1922

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References

page 338 note 1 Wegener, A., Die Entstehung der Kontinenle und Ozeane, 2nd ed., Braunschweig, 1920.Google Scholar

page 338 note 2 Wettstein's notions seem to have been developed in a book published at Zürich in 1880. The other references are as follows: Pickering, W. H., Journ. of Geol., vol. xv, 1907, p. 23; F. B. Taylor, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. xxi, 1910, p. 179; E. H. L. Schwarz, Geog. Journ., vol. xl, 1912, p. 294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 339 note 1 Figure of the Earth, 3rd ed., 1865, p. 134.Google Scholar

page 339 note 2 Phil. Trans., vol. cxlv, 1855, p. 101.Google Scholar

page 340 note 1 Physics of the Earth's Crust, 2nd ed., 1889, p. 339.Google Scholar

page 340 note 2 Pickering's idea (Journ. of Geol., vol. xv, p. 23) is similar to this, but he imagines much more extensive effects. He supposes the separation of Africa from South America to be due to the same cause.Google Scholar

page 343 note 1 Lemoine, P., Afrique occidentale. Handbuch d. Reg. Geol., p. 57.Google Scholar

page 343 note 2 Falconer, J. D., The Geology and Geography of Northern Nigeria, London, 1911.Google Scholar

page 344 note 1 Toit, Du, (S. African Journ. of Sci., vol. xviii, 1921, p. 120) accepts Wegener's views, but does not discuss this point. Schwarz's theory (Geog. Journ., vol. xl, 1912, p. 294) does not require any direct connexion between the South African ranges and those of Buenos Aires.Google Scholar

page 344 note 2 The ordinary triangular compasses of the draughtsman are of very limited use upon a globe. In a recent letter to Nature, vol. ex, p. 77, I have suggested an easily constructed form which is fairly convenient in use. More convenient forms may be devised, but their construction is a little more difficult.