Francis Bacon's Theory Of The Idea Of Continental Drift

The idea of continental drift was based of researchers’ work centuries ago, who thought all the continents were once one but their hypothesis never got accepted due to the absence of evidence. Sir Francis Bacon was the first to point out the resemblances in the continental outlines of eastern South America and western Africa in 1620. Then, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, a French geographer, discovered the same plant fossils in Europe and the United-States in 1858. He then came up with the theory that all the continents were once connected to each other and he identified the “Great Flood” from the Bible to be the cause of the breaking away of the continents. Both premises were rejected, as they couldn’t explain the reason for the division of the continents.

Alfred Weneger was a German meteorologist in the early 20th century, although he never

Weneger started by exploring Bacon’s theory, however instead of just looking at the how the continents fit together, he looked into their corresponding continental shelves. By comparing the continental shelves of eastern South America and western Africa, Weneger found out that the two continents fit even better than what he observed on maps. Afterwards, he looked for geologic and fossil proof to reinforce his thesis; first he discovered that Mesosaurus fossils are only found in South America and Africa, which reinforced the possibility that the two continents were once connected. However, Weneger never got his continental drift theory accepted due to lack of geoscience qualifications. But based on Weneger’s research, scientists in the