100 Years Later: Reflecting on Alfred Wegener's Contributions To
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It Has Often Been Said That Studying the Depths of the Sea Is Like Hovering In
It has often been said that studying the depths of the sea is like hovering in a balloon high above an unknown land which is hidden by clouds, for it is a peculiarity of oceanic research that direct observations of the abyss are impracticable. Instead of the complete picture which vision gives, we have to rely upon a patiently put together mosaic representation of the discoveries made from time to time by sinking instruments and appliances into the deep. (Murray & Hjort, 1912: 22) Figure 1: Portrait of the H.M.S. Challenger. Prologue: Simple Beginnings In 1872, the H.M.S Challenger began its five- year journey that would stretch across every ocean on the planet but the Arctic. Challenger was funded for a single reason; to examine the mysterious workings of the ocean below its surface, previously unexplored. Under steam power, it travelled over 100,000 km and compiled 50 volumes of data and observations on water depth, temperature and conditions, as well as collecting samples of the seafloor, water, and organisms. The devices used to collect this data, while primitive by today’s standards and somewhat imprecise, were effective at giving humanity its first in-depth look into the inner workings of the ocean. By lowering a measured rope attached to a 200 kg weight off the edge of the ship, scientists estimated the depth of the ocean. A single reading could take up to 80 minutes for the weight to reach bottom. Taking a depth measurement also necessitated that the Challenger stop moving, and accurate mapping required a precise knowledge of where the ship was in the world, using navigational tools such as sextants. -
Alfred Wegener's Hypothesis on Continental Drift and Its Discussion in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Electronic Publication Information Center Polarforschung 75 (1), 29 – 35, 2005 (erschienen 2006) Alfred Wegener’s Hypothesis on Continental Drift and Its Discussion in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen (1912 – 1942) by Imre Josef Demhardt1 Abstract: Certainly not the first to notice the obvious key-and-lock shape of crossed when the famous first publication of Wegener’s hypo- Brazil and Africa, in 1911 the meteorologist Alfred Wegener was nevertheless thesis on continental drift appeared in the April and May among the first scientists to link hitherto isolated scientific arguments to these empirical observation and develop a hypothesis conclusively explaining the issues of PGM 1912. Given this double anniversary, it might architecture of the Earth’s surface which over the years evolved into an intense be timely to recall some of the circumstances, which led to this debate with his adversaries. Although cautioned by his colleague and father- publication and to shed some light on probably little known in-law Wladimir Köppen not to interfere with the discussion of geological matters as a meteorologist – and therefore as an outsider – he presented his aspects of the debate it triggered in the columns of this leading thoughts to the “Geologische Vereinigung” in Frankfurt am Main on 6 January geographical journal in the three decades thereafter. 1912 and first published them in ‘Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen’, one of the leading geographical monthlies of international reputation, in April 1912 in a paper entitled “Die Entstehung der Kontinente” (The Origin of the Alfred Wegener (1880-1930, Fig. -
Wegener and His Theory of Continental Drift
GENERAL I ARTICLE Wegener and his Theory of Continental Drift Ramesh Chander Alfred Wegener, an astronomer by training and meteorologist by profession, visualised that there was once a single very large landmass on the surface of the earth. Gradually it broke up into smaller fragments which drifted away to form the present continents. In a few cases, the drifting fragments subsequently collided, coalesced and Ramesh Chander is a formed larger landmasses again. Wegener could thus Professor at the Universit}' explain in a simple way (i) similarities in shapes of of Rool'kee, engaged in diverse studies related to continental coast lines separated by wide oceans, (ii) natural earthquakes in the similarities in the rocks and fossils occurring on such Himalaya as well as coasts and in the fauna and flora inhabiting them, (ill) the modelling of reservoir formation of several major mountain ranges of the world, induced earthquakes in that region. and (iv) the evidence in rocks on past climates ofthe earth. Introduction Astronomers take immense delight in enumerating the various motions that we partake even as we are apparently stationary on the surface of the earth. Geophysicists, the people who apply the principles of physics to investigate the earth, gleefully add that the surface of the terra firma itself is not steady but responds pliantly to many causes in the earth's interior and on its surface as well as to a few causes in the solar system. Occasionally, we can feel the motion of the earth's surface directly for brief periods, as during a major earthquake or when a heavy object moves near us. -
Milankovitch, the Father of Paleoclimate Modeling
Milankovitch, the father of paleoclimate modeling Andre Berger Georges Lemaître Center for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain- la-Neuve, 1348, Belgium 5 Correspondence to: Andre Berger ([email protected]) Abstract. The history of the long-term variations of the astronomical elements used in paleoclimate research shows that, contrary to what might be thought, Milutin Milankovitch is not the father of the astronomical theory but he is definitely of paleoclimate modeling. He has not calculated himself these long-term variations but used them extensively for calculating the “secular march” of incoming solar 10 radiation. He has advanced our understanding of Quaternary climate variations by two important and original contributions fully described in his Canon of Insolation. These are the definition and use of caloric seasons and the concept of the “mathematical climate. How his mathematical model allowed him to give the caloric summer and winter insolation a climatological meaning is illustrated. 1 Introduction 15 Paleoclimatology is primarily a reconstruction of past climatic variations on the basis of proxy records. It aims also to explain these variations from principles of climatic behavior using climate models. Milankovitch has contributed significantly to this second objective by using the astronomical parameters to compute the long-term variations of his caloric insolation which he used in a climate model (although very simple) to reconstruct the past climates. This paper intends to underline the fundamental and original 20 contributions of Milankovitch to the understanding of the long-term climatic variations over the last one million years. The two remarkable books of Milutin Milankovitch, his 1920 Théorie Mathématique written in French and - his 1941 Kanon der Erdbestrahlung written in German and translated in English in 1969, have 25 largely contributed to his reputation. -
Wladimir Köppen, Alfred Wegener, and Milutin Milankovitch: Their Impact on Modern Paleoclimate Research and the Revival of the Milankovitch Hypothesis Jörn Thiede St
UDC 551.583.7 Вестник СПбГУ. Науки о Земле. 2018. Т. 63. Вып. 2 Wladimir Köppen, Alfred Wegener, and Milutin Milankovitch: their impact on modern paleoclimate research and the revival of the Milankovitch hypothesis Jörn Thiede St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation For citation: Thiede J. Wladimir Köppen, Alfred Wegener, and Milutin Milankovitch: their impact on modern paleoclimate research and the revival of the Milankovitch hypothesis. Vestnik of Saint Peters- burg University. Earth Sciences, 2018, vol. 63, issue 2, pp. 230–250. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/ spbu07.2018.207 Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940, originally from St. Petersburg), Alfred Wegener (1880–1930, originally from Berlin) and Milutin Milankovitch (1879–1958, originally from Dalj, then Austria-Hungary, today eastern Croatia) made significant contributions to paleoclimatology during the early years of the 20th century. Köppen described the global climate zonation, We- gener defined the continental drift during the Phanerozoic, using Köppen’s climate zonations applied to paleogeographic scenarios of the geological past, and Milankovitch introduced regularly changing orbital parameters as controls of past climatic changes providing a precise timescale for Glacials and Interglacials during the Quaternary. By combining their scientific efforts, they succeeded to change our understanding of Earth history fundamentally, each of them with their specific expertise and their wide scientific horizons. Wladimir Köppen’s scientific work began with observations from the Crimea and from contributing to produce synoptic weather maps while he was working at the Central Physical Observatory in St. Pe- tersburg. Later he pursued his scientific career at the “Deutsche Seewarte” in Hamburg. -
Alfred Wegener (1880 - 1930)
Species and Areas: History of Ideas How do you choose between dispersalist and vicariance models? Two important scientific advances – in the study of earth history and organismal history - revolutionized historical biogeography 1. Acceptance of plate tectonics Up until the 1960s, most persons considered the earth's crust to be fixed. Finally, in the 1960s the geological evidence was at hand that made continental drift irrefutable. 2. Development of new phylogenetic methods Willi Hennig (1950) introduced the modern concepts of phylogenetic theory (first published in 1956). Using this methodology, hypotheses of historical lineages of species could be reconstructed. Earth History: Plate Tectonics Earth History: Plate Tectonics During the great world explorations of the 15th - 16th centuries, cartographers first began to entertain ideas of earth’s mutability based on continental outlines Abraham Ortellius’ 1587 map with exaggerated fit of South American and African coastlines Earth History: Plate Tectonics With no known process to account for these patterns, a variety of imaginative mechanisms were proposed in the 19th and early 20th centuries: Richard Owen’s 1857 Tetrahedral Theory Continents were superimposed on each other (e.g., South America on Africa, Australia on Arabia) prior to their separation “This approximation, although involving great doubt, is given because it may facilitate the working of the problem which all desire to solve, regarding the earth’s development” Key to the Geology of Globe Earth History: Plate Tectonics With no known process to account for these patterns, a variety of imaginative mechanisms were proposed in the 19th and early 20th centuries: Before After Antonio Snider’s map of “before” and “after” the separation from 1858. -
Catalogue of Place Names in Northern East Greenland
Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland In this section all officially approved, and many Greenlandic names are spelt according to the unapproved, names are listed, together with explana- modern Greenland orthography (spelling reform tions where known. Approved names are listed in 1973), with cross-references from the old-style normal type or bold type, whereas unapproved spelling still to be found on many published maps. names are always given in italics. Names of ships are Prospectors place names used only in confidential given in small CAPITALS. Individual name entries are company reports are not found in this volume. In listed in Danish alphabetical order, such that names general, only selected unapproved names introduced beginning with the Danish letters Æ, Ø and Å come by scientific or climbing expeditions are included. after Z. This means that Danish names beginning Incomplete documentation of climbing activities with Å or Aa (e.g. Aage Bertelsen Gletscher, Aage de by expeditions claiming ‘first ascents’ on Milne Land Lemos Dal, Åkerblom Ø, Ålborg Fjord etc) are found and in nunatak regions such as Dronning Louise towards the end of this catalogue. Å replaced aa in Land, has led to a decision to exclude them. Many Danish spelling for most purposes in 1948, but aa is recent expeditions to Dronning Louise Land, and commonly retained in personal names, and is option- other nunatak areas, have gained access to their al in some Danish town names (e.g. Ålborg or Aalborg region of interest using Twin Otter aircraft, such that are both correct). However, Greenlandic names be - the remaining ‘climb’ to the summits of some peaks ginning with aa following the spelling reform dating may be as little as a few hundred metres; this raises from 1973 (a long vowel sound rather than short) are the question of what constitutes an ‘ascent’? treated as two consecutive ‘a’s. -
In the End, Even the Hunger Vanishes | the Arctic Journal 28/11/2016 16.10
In the end, even the hunger vanishes | The Arctic Journal 28/11/2016 16.10 PRIVACY AND COOKIES RSS FEED ADVERTISING Search REGISTER TODAY to recieve updates MONDAY and information NOVEMBER 28, 2016 CLICK HERE REGIONAL JOURNALISM, GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. HOME BUSINESS POLITICS CLIMATE CULTURE OPINION OIL & MINERALS History In the end, even the hunger vanishes In 1912, a group of explorers got the idea of trying to cross the Greenland ice cap using horses. It proved nearly as disastrous for the men as it did for the horses CULTURE Dead horse walking (Photo: Arktisk Institut) November 3, 2016 - 10:28am - By Iben Bjørnsson Share this Do you remember Johan Peter Koch? He was the chief cartographer on the Danmark article Expedition (the one who found the body of Jørgen Brønlund at ’79 Fjord). He was the one who taught cartography to Peter Freuchen. Facebook Google At the beginning of the 20th century he had an idea: to cross the Greenlandic ice sheet Twitter with Icelandic horses. This is the story of that journey. Mail In 2015, historian Jan O Kongstad wrote a book about the expedition. He describes Koch this way: http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2673/end-even-hunger-vanishes Side 1 af 21 In the end, even the hunger vanishes | The Arctic Journal 28/11/2016 16.10 “He was actually a very modest man. He didn’t care too much for attention, but, if he decided that something must be done, he was the one to take the lead, and he expected others to work as hard as he did. -
Døden På Isen Mylius-Erichsens Sidste Rejse, Danmark- Ekspeditionen 1906-1908 Prolog - Hemmeligheden På Loftet
Jens Ejsing Døden på isen Mylius-Erichsens sidste rejse, Danmark- Ekspeditionen 1906-1908 Prolog - Hemmeligheden på loftet Du skal dø, Mylius-Erichsen. Først skal sult og tørst tære dit sul. Så skal kulde sløre dine tanker og lamme dine lemmer. Til sidst skal isbjørnen æde dit kød og havet opsluge dine knogler. I slutningen af november 1907 døde 35-årige Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen på isen i Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden i det nordøstligste af Grønland. Uden mad, uden brænde eller brændstof til at smelte sne til drikkevand bukkede han under for den ubegribeligt iskolde arktiske vinter med dens storme og temperaturer på langt under 30 minusgrader. Han døde udbrændt og ensom fjernt fra det Danmark, han året forinden havde forladt som leder af og initiativtager til den 28 mand store Danmark-Ekspeditionen, der 1906-1908 skulle kortlægge og udforske det ukendte Nordøstgrønland. Ekspeditionens resultater, opmålinger og ikke mindst dens mange dramatiske begivenheder har gjort den til den måske vigtigste og vildeste, danske videnskabelige ekspedition nogensinde. Den fik betydning for det dansk- amerikanske forhold i Arktis og var med til at sikre, at Danmark i 1930erne kunne gøre endeligt krav på hele Grønland. Mylius-Erichsens død har lige siden været en gåde og det største mysterium i dansk ekspeditionshistorie. Officielt blev hans lig aldrig fundet, undersøgt eller begravet af de andre deltagere, og sådan er historien om Mylius-Erichsens endeligt blevet fortalt i over 100 år. Men er historien en løgn af historiske dimensioner? Fandt en af de andre deltagere -
Title: Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian Pioneering Ideas on Meteorite Impacts and Cosmic Neocatastrophism in the Early 20Th Century
Title: Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century Author: Grzegorz Racki, Tõnu Viik, Väino Puura Citation style: Racki Grzegorz, Viik Tõnu, Puura Väino. (2018). Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century. “BSGF - Earth Sciences Bulletin” (Vol. 189, iss. 3 (2018), Art No. 11), doi 10.1051/bsgf/2018011 BSGF - Earth Sciences Bulletin 2018, 189, 11 © G. Racki et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2018 https://doi.org/10.1051/bsgf/2018011 Available online at: www.bsgf.fr Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century Grzegorz Racki1,*, Tõnu Viik2 and Väino Puura3,† 1 Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska Str. 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland 2 Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Tõravere, 61602 Tartumaa, Estonia 3 Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia Received: 15 January 2018 / Accepted: 5 July 2018 Abstract – The article comprehensively presents little known Estonian contribution to the recognition of first meteorite impact structures in Europe, related to works of Julius Kaljuvee (Kalkun; 1869–1940) and Ivan Reinwald (Reinwaldt; 1878–1941). As an active educator specialized in geoscience, Kaljuvee was the first to hypothesize in 1922 that Kaali lake cirque in Saaremaa Island, Estonia, was created by meteorite impact. Thanks to mining engineer Reinwald, this assumption was accepted since 1928 due to the exhaustive field and borehole works of the latter (also as a result of exploration by several German scholars, including renowned Alfred Wegener). -
100 YEARS LATER Reflecting on Alfred Wegener’S Contributions to Tornado Research in Europe
100 YEARS LATER Reflecting on Alfred Wegener’s Contributions to Tornado Research in Europe BOGDAN ANTONESCU, HUGO M. A. M. RICKETTS, AND DAVID M. SCHULTZ Alfred Wegener not only proposed the theory of continental drift but was also a pioneer of modern tornado research in Europe. lfred Wegener (1880–1930; Fig. 1) is mainly remembered today for his contributions to con- Atinental drift from which the modern theory of plate tectonics—“one of the key scientific concepts of the past century” (Greene 2015)—is derived (Romano and Cifelli 2015). Wegener not only made major contributions to geology and geophysics but also to astronomy and geodesy (Wegener 1905; he was an as- tronomer by training), glaciology (Koch and Wegener 1911; he was a pioneer explorer of Greenland), paleo- climatology (Köppen and Wegener 1924), and mete- oritics (Wegener 1925a). He performed research in at- mospheric physics and meteorology, including cloud microphysics (e.g., Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen process; Wegener 1910), thermodynamics (Wegener 1911c), the vertical structure of the chemical compo- sition of the atmosphere (e.g., Wegener 1925b), and atmospheric optics (e.g., a subhelic arc is named the Wegener arc; Wegener 1925c). Lesser known are his contributions to the study of tornadoes. In 1917, Wegener published the seminal book Wind- und Wasserhosen in Europa (Tornadoes and Waterspouts in Europe). This book not only con- tains the first pan-European tornado climatology but ▶ FIG. 1. Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), photo taken probably in Marburg around 1910. [Photo -
Bibliography of Recent Literature in the History of Meteorology Twenty Six Years, 1983-2008
History of Meteorology 5 (2009) 23 Bibliography of Recent Literature in the History of Meteorology Twenty Six Years, 1983-2008 Brant Vogel Papers of John Jay Columbia University The following is a bibliography of recent secondary literature in the history of meteorol- ogy, broadly conceived. It is presented in chronological order a) to illustrate the growth of his- tory of meteorology as field in the throes of self-definition, and b) because an artificial schema, whether based on subject, region, period, or discipline, would fail in the face of the diversity of the materials represented. It is intended as a tool for students entering the field, a refresher for those already in it, and a reference for historians in other fields.1 History of the Project The bibliography project began in November 2003 at the History of Science Society An- nual Meeting in Cambridge, MA. James Fleming2 organized a session and a subsequent wildcat dinner for ICHM members. At the session, and afterwards, Fleming told me that the IUHPS had requested that its commissions produce bibliographies for the World History of Science Online Project. I offered that I had already compiled a fairly large bibliographic database while com- pleting my dissertation.3 Because of what I found to be the paucity of literature in the historiog- raphy of meteorology when I started my dissertation research, I had gathered everything I could find. Fleming suggested making a more formal project of it. As there were other bibliographic resources for older material, we decided that twenty years of recent historiography would be the most useful.