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Rank 132Down 2
#13 in Scientific Discoveries
of 20 ranked entries
Plate Tectonics
Alfred Wegener, 1912 · confirmed 1960s
Wegener noticed South America and Africa fit together like puzzle pieces and proposed continental drift in 1912; geologists dismissed him for lacking a mechanism, and he died in 1930 on a Greenland expedition still unvindicated. Seafloor-spreading evidence in the 1960s finally supplied the mechanism and proved him right. Recorded specifics: year 1912, discipline Earth science, country Germany. Panel highlighted explains earthquake and volcano distribution, mountain formation and fossil patterns in one framework, vindicated by independent seafloor magnetic-striping evidence decades after Wegener’s death and foundational to virtually all modern geology. The reservation on record is rejected by the geological mainstream for nearly fifty years for lack of a proposed mechanism.
Earth science
Score breakdown
How Plate Tectonics earned 80
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Scientific Discoveries.
- Explanatory powerweight 30%
- 77.8
- Reproducibility & evidenceweight 25%
- 79.2
- Downstream impactweight 25%
- 81.3
- Paradigm-shifting influenceweight 20%
- 82.8
On the record
Recorded detail
| Year | 1912 |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Earth science |
| Country | Germany |
| Rating | 8.9 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Explains earthquake and volcano distribution, mountain formation and fossil patterns in one framework
- Vindicated by independent seafloor magnetic-striping evidence decades after Wegener’s death
- Foundational to virtually all modern geology
Where it gives ground
- Rejected by the geological mainstream for nearly fifty years for lack of a proposed mechanism
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
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