Antonio Snider-Pellegrini's Illustration of the closed and opened Atlantic Ocean (1858).

Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other by drifting across the ocean bed.^[1] The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently (and more fully) developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. The theory of continental drift was superseded by the theory of plate tectonics.

History[link]

Early history[link]

Abraham Ortelius (Ortelius 1596),^[2] Theodor Christoph Lilienthal (1756),^[3] Alexander von Humboldt (1801 and 1845),^[3] Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (Snider-Pellegrini 1858), and others had noted earlier that the shapes of continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean (most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together.^[4] W. J. Kious described Ortelius' thoughts in this way:^[5]

Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus ... suggested that the Americas were "torn away from Europe and Africa ... by earthquakes and floods" and went on to say: "The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three [continents]."

Writing in 1889, Alfred Russel Wallace remarks "It was formerly a very general belief, even amongst geologists, that the great features of the earth's surface, no less than the smaller ones, were subject to continual mutations, and that during the course of known geological time the continents and great oceans had again and again changed places with each other."^[6] He quotes Charles Lyell as saying "Continents, therefore, although permanent for whole geological epochs, shift their positions entirely in the course of ages"^[7] and claims that the first to throw doubt on this was James D. Dana in 1849.

In his Manual of Geology, 1863, Dana says "The continents and oceans had their general outline or form defined in earliest time. This has been proved with respect to North America from the position and distribution of the first beds of the Silurian - those of the Potsdam epoch - and this will probably prove to the case in Primordial time with the other continents also".^[8] Dana was enormously influential in America - his Manual of Mineralogy is still in print in revised form - and the theory became known as Permanence theory.^[9]

Wegener and his predecessors[link]

Alfred Wegener

The hypothesis that the continents had once formed a single landmass before breaking apart and drifting to their present locations was first presented by Alfred Wegener to the German Geological Society on 6 January 1912.^[10] Although Wegener's theory was formed independently and was more complete than those of his predecessors, Wegener later credited a number of past authors with similar ideas:^[11][12] Franklin Coxworthy (between 1848 and 1890),^[13] Roberto Mantovani (between 1889 and 1909), William Henry Pickering (1907)^[14] and Frank Bursley Taylor (1908). Eduard Suess had proposed a supercontinent Gondwana in 1858 and the Tethys Ocean in 1893, from a sunken land-bridge/ geosyncline theory point-of-view, though. John Perry had written an 1895 paper proposing that the earth's interior was fluid, and disagreeing with Lord Kelvin on the age of the earth.

For example: the similarity of southern continent geological formations had led Roberto Mantovani to conjecture in 1889 and 1909 that all the continents had once been joined into a supercontinent (now known as Pangaea); Wegener noted the similarity of Mantovani's and his own maps of the former positions of the southern continents. Through volcanic activity due to thermal expansion this continent broke and the new continents drifted away from each other because of further expansion of the rip-zones, where the oceans now lie. This led Mantovani to propose an Expanding Earth theory which has since been shown to be incorrect.^[15][16][17]

Some sort of continental drift without expansion was proposed by Frank Bursley Taylor, who suggested in 1908 (published in 1910) that the continents were dragged towards the equator by increased lunar gravity during the Cretaceous, thus forming the Himalayas and Alps on the southern faces. Wegener said that of all those theories, Taylor's, although not fully developed, had the most similarities to his own.^[18]

Wegener was the first to use the phrase "continental drift" (1912, 1915)^[10][11] (in German "die Verschiebung der Kontinente" – translated into English in 1922) and formally publish the hypothesis that the continents had somehow "drifted" apart. Although he presented much evidence for continental drift, he was unable to provide a convincing explanation for the physical processes which might have caused this drift. His suggestion that the continents had been pulled apart by the centrifugal pseudoforce (Polflucht) of the Earth's rotation or by a small component of astronomical precession was rejected as calculations showed that the force was not sufficient.^[19] The Polflucht hypothesis was also studied by Paul Sophus Epstein in 1920 and found to be implausible.

Evidence that continents 'drift'[link]

Fossil patterns across continents (Gondwanaland).

Mesosaurus skeleton, MacGregor, 1908.

Evidence for the movement of continents on tectonic plates is now extensive. Similar plant and animal fossils are found around different continent shores, suggesting that they were once joined. The fossils of Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile rather like a small crocodile, found both in Brazil and South Africa, are one example; another is the discovery of fossils of the land reptile Lystrosaurus from rocks of the same age from locations in South America, Africa, and Antarctica.^[20] There is also living evidence—the same animals being found on two continents. Some earthworm families (e.g.: Ocnerodrilidae, Acanthodrilidae, Octochaetidae) are found in South America and Africa, for instance.

The complementary arrangement of the facing sides of South America and Africa is obvious, but is a temporary coincidence. In millions of years, slab pull and ridge-push, and other forces of tectonophysics will further separate and rotate those two continents. It was this temporary feature which inspired Wegener to study what he defined as continental drift, although he did not live to see his hypothesis become generally accepted.

Widespread distribution of Permo-Carboniferous glacial sediments in South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Antarctica and Australia was one of the major pieces of evidence for the theory of continental drift. The continuity of glaciers, inferred from oriented glacial striations and deposits called tillites, suggested the existence of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which became a central element of the concept of continental drift. Striations indicated glacial flow away from the equator and toward the poles, in modern coordinates, and supported the idea that the southern continents had previously been in dramatically different locations, as well as contiguous with each other.^[11]

Rejection of Wegener's theory, and subsequent vindication[link]

The theory of continental drift was not accepted for many years. One problem was that a plausible driving force was missing.^[1] And it did not help that Wegener was not a geologist. It is now accepted that the plates carrying the continents do move across the Earth's surface; ironically one of the chief outstanding questions is the one Wegener failed to resolve: what is the nature of the forces propelling the plates?^[1]

The British geologist Arthur Holmes championed the theory of continental drift at a time when it was deeply unfashionable. He proposed that the Earth's mantle contained convection cells that dissipated radioactive heat and moved the crust at the surface. His Principles of Physical Geology, ending with a chapter on continental drift, was published in 1944.^[21]

As late as 1953 – just five years before Carey^[22] introduced the theory of plate tectonics – the theory of continental drift was rejected by the physicist Scheiddiger on the following grounds.^[23]

Simplified animation of the break-up of Pangaea and the formation of modern continents.

• First, it had been shown that floating masses on a rotating geoid would collect at the equator, and stay there. This would explain one, but only one, mountain building episode between any pair of continents; it failed to account for earlier orogenic episodes.
• Second, masses floating freely in a fluid substratum, like icebergs in the ocean, should be in isostatic equilibrium (where the forces of gravity and buoyancy are in balance). Gravitational measurements were showing that many areas are not in isostatic equilibrium.
• Third, there was the problem of why some parts of the Earth's surface (crust) should have solidifed while other parts were still fluid. Various attempts to explain this foundered on other difficulties.

Geophysicist Jack Oliver is credited with providing seismologic evidence supporting plate tectonics which encompassed and superseded continental drift with “Seismology and the New Global Tectonics,” published in 1968, using data collected from seismologic stations, including those he set up in the South Pacific.^[24]

It is now known that there are two kinds of crust, continental crust and oceanic crust. Continental crust is inherently lighter and of a different composition to oceanic crust, but both kinds reside above a much deeper fluid mantle. Oceanic crust is created at spreading centers, and this, along with subduction, drives the system of plates in a chaotic manner, resulting in continuous orogeny and areas of isostatic imbalance. The theory of plate tectonics explains all this, including the movement of the continents, better than Wegener's theory.

Bibliography[link]

Notes:

References:

• Le Grand, Homer Eugene (1988), Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories, Cambridge University, ISBN 0-521-31105-5 
• Ortelius, Abraham (1596) (in Latin), Thesaurus Geographicus (3 ed.), Antwerp: Plantin, OCLC 214324616  (First edition published 1570, 1587 edition online)
• Snider-Pellegrini, Antonio (1858), La Création et ses mystères dévoilés, Paris: Frank and Dentu, http://books.google.ca/books?id=UZdKmF3iEdUC&dq=%22Cr%C3%A9ation%20et%20ses%20Myst%C3%A8res%20D%C3%A9voil%C3%A9s%22&pg=PA314-IA3#v=onepage&q=continent&f=false 

External links[link]

• A brief introduction to Plate Tectonics, based on the work of Alfred Wegener.
• Maps of continental drift, from the Precambrian to the future
• Four main evidences of the Continental Drift theory
• Wegener and his proofs

Alfred Wegener
Alfred Wegener, around 1925
Born	(1880-11-01)November 1, 1880 Berlin, German Empire
Died	November 1930 (aged 50) Clarinetania, Greenland
Residence	Germany
Citizenship	German
Nationality	German
Fields	Meteorology, Geology, Astronomy
Alma mater	University of Berlin
Doctoral advisor	Julius Bauschinger
Known for	Continental drift theory
Influenced	Johannes Letzmann
Signature

Alfred Lothar Wegener (November 1, 1880 – November 1930) was a German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist.

During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered for first proposing the theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. His hypothesis was controversial and not widely accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of Plate tectonics.^[1][2] Wegener was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological observations and achieved the first-ever overwintering on the inland Greenland ice sheet as well as the first-ever boring of ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

On November 1, 1880, Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin as the youngest of five children in a clergyman's family. His father, Richard Wegener, was a theologian and teacher of classical languages at the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. In 1886 his family purchased a former manor house near Rheinsberg, which they used as a vacation home. Today there is an Alfred Wegener Memorial site and tourist information office in a nearby building that was once the local schoolhouse^[3].

Commemorative plaque on Wegener's former school in Wallstrasse

Wegener attended school at the Köllnische Gymnasium on Wallstrasse in Berlin (a fact which is memorialized on a plaque on this protected building, now a school of music), graduating as the best in his class. Afterward he studied Physics, meteorology and Astronomy in Berlin, Heidelberg and Innsbruck. From 1902 to 1903 during his studies he was an assistant at the Urania astronomical observatory. He obtained a doctorate in astronomy in 1905 based on a dissertation written under the supervision of Julius Bauschinger at Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt University), Berlin. Wegener had always maintained a strong interest in the developing fields of meteorology and climatology and his studies afterwards focused on these disciplines.

In 1905 Wegener became an assistant at the Aeronautischen Observatorium Lindenberg near Beeskow. He worked there with his brother Kurt, two years his senior, who was likewise a scientist with an interest in meteorology and polar research. The two pioneered the use of weather balloons to track air masses. On a balloon ascent undertaken to carry out meteorological investigations and to test a celestial navigation method using a particular type of quadrant (“Libellenquadrant”), the Wegener brothers set a new record for a continuous balloon flight, remaining aloft 52.5 hours from April 5-7, 1906.^[4]

First Greenland expedition and years in Marburg[link]

In that same year 1906, Wegener participated in the first of his three Greenland expeditions, later regarding this experience as marking a decisive turning point in his life. The expedition was led by the Dane Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen and charged with studying the last unknown portion of the northeastern coast of Greenland. During the expedition Wegener constructed the first meteorological station in Greenland near Danmarkshavn, where he launched kites and tethered balloons to make meteorological measurements in an Arctic climatic zone. Here Wegener also made his first acquaintance with death in a wilderness of ice when the expedition leader and two of his colleagues died on an exploratory trip undertaken with sled dogs.

After his return in 1908 and until World War I, Wegener was a lecturer in meteorology, applied astronomy and cosmic physics at the University of Marburg. His students and colleagues in Marburg particularly valued his ability to clearly and understandably explain even complex topics and current research findings without sacrificing precision. His lectures formed the basis of what was to become a standard textbook in meteorology, first written In 1909/1910: Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre (Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere), in which he incorporated many of the results of the Greenland expedition.

On 6 January 1912 he publicized his first thoughts about continental drift in a lecture at a session of the Geologischen Vereinigung at the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt/M and in three articles in the journal Petermanns Geographischen Mitteilungen^[5]

Second Greenland expedition[link]

After a stopover in Iceland to purchase and test ponys as pack animals, the expedition arrived in Danmarkshavn. Even before the trip to the inland ice began the expedition was almost annihilated by a calving glacier. The Danish expedition leader, Johan Peter Koch, broke his leg when he fell into a glacier crevasse and spent months recovering in a sickbed. Wegener and Koch were the first to winter on the inland ice in northeast Greenland.^[6] Inside their hut they drilled to a depth of 25 m with an auger. In summer 1913 the team crossed the inland ice, the four expedition participants covering a distance twice as long as Fridtjof Nansen's southern Greenland crossing in 1888. Only a few kilometers from the western Greenland setlement of Kangersuatsiaq the small team ran out of food while struggling to find their way through difficult glacial breakup terrain. But at the last moment, after the last pony and dog had been eaten, they were picked up at a fjord by the clergyman of Upernavik, who just happened to be visiting a remote congregation at the time.

Later in 1913 after his return Wegener married Else Köppen, the daughter of his former teacher and mentor, the meteorologist Wladimir Köppen. The young pair lived in Marburg, where Wegner resumed his university lectureship.

World War I[link]

As an infantry reserve officer Wegener was immediately conscripted when war began in 1914. On the war front in Belgium he experienced fierce fighting but his term lasted only a few months: after being wounded twice he was declared unfit for active service and assigned to the army weather service. This activity required him to travel constantly between various weather stations in Germany, on the Balkans, on the Western Front and in the Baltic region.

Nevertheless he was able in 1915 to complete the first version of his major work, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (“The Origin of Continents and Oceans”). His brother Kurt remarked that Alfred Wegener’s motivation was to “reestablish the connection between geophysics on the one hand and geography and geology on the other, which had become completely ruptured because of the specialized development of these branches of science.”

Interest in this small publication was however low, also because of wartime chaos. By the end of the war Wegener had published almost 20 additional meteorological and geophysical papers in which he repeatedly embarked for new scientific frontiers. In 1917 he undertook a scientific investigation of the Treysa meteorite.

Postwar period and third expedition[link]

Wegener obtained a position as a meteorologist at the German Naval Observatory (Deutsche Seewarte) and moved to Hamburg with his wife and their two daughters. In 1921 he was appointed senior lecturer at the new University of Hamburg. From 1919 to 1923 Wegener worked on Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit (“The Climates of the Geological Past”), published together with his father-in-law, Wladimar Köppen. In 1922 the third, fully revised edition of “The Origin of Continents and Oceans” appeared, and discussion began on his theory of continental drift, first in the German language area and later internationally. Withering criticism was the response of most experts.

In 1924 Wegener was appointed to a professorship in meteorology and geophysics in Graz, which finally provided him with a secure position for himself and his family. He concentrated on physics and the optics of the atmosphere as well as the study of tornados. Scientific assessment of his second Greenland expedition (ice measurements, atmospheric optics, etc.) continued to the end of the 1920s.

In November 1926 Wegener presented his continental drift theory at a symposium of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in New York City, again earning rejection from everyone but the chairman. Three years later the fourth and final expanded edition of “The Origin of Continents and Oceans” appeared.

In 1929 Wegener embarked on his third trip to Greenland, which laid the groundwork for a later main expedition and included a test of an innovative, propeller-driven snowmobile.

Fourth and last expedition[link]

Wegener (left) and Villumsen (right) in Greenland; November 1st, 1930.

Wegener's last Greenland expedition was in 1930. The 14 participants under his leadership were to establish three permanent stations from which the thickness of the Greenland ice sheet could be measured and year-round Arctic weather observations made. Wegener felt personally responsible for the expedition's success, as the German government had contributed $120,000 ($1.5 million in 2007 dollars) at a time when Germans were starving to death owing to post-war shortages. Success depended on enough provisions being transferred from West camp to Eismitte ("mid-ice") for two men to winter there, and this was a factor in the decision that led to his death. Owing to a late thaw, the expedition was six weeks behind schedule and, as summer ended, the men at Eismitte sent a message that they had insufficient fuel and so would return on October 20.

Vehicles used by the 1930 expedition (stored).

On September 24, although the route markers were by now largely buried under snow, Wegener set out with thirteen Greenlanders and his meteorologist Fritz Loewe to supply the camp by dog sled. During the journey the temperature reached −60 °C (−76 °F) and Loewe's toes became so frostbitten they had to be amputated with a penknife without anesthetic. Twelve of the Greenlanders returned to West camp. On October 19, the remaining three members of the expedition reached Eismitte. There being only enough supplies for three at Eismitte, Wegener and Rasmus Villumsen took two dog sleds and made for West camp. They took no food for the dogs and killed them one by one to feed the rest until they could run only one sled. While Villumsen rode the sled, Wegener had to use skis. They never reached the camp. The expedition was completed by his brother, Kurt Wegener.

Death[link]

Six months later, on May 12, 1931, Wegener's body was found halfway between Eismitte and West camp. It had been buried (by Villumsen) with great care and a pair of skis marked the grave site. Wegener had been fifty years of age and a heavy smoker and it was believed that he had died of heart failure brought on by overexertion. His body was reburied in the same spot by the team that found him and the grave was marked with a large cross. After burying Wegener, Villumsen had resumed his journey to West camp but was never seen again. He was twenty three when he died and it is estimated that his body, and Wegener's diary, now lie under more than 100 metres (330 ft) of accumulated ice and snow.

Continental drift theory[link]

Alfred Wegener first thought of this idea by noticing that the different large landmasses of the Earth almost fit together like a jigsaw. The Continental shelf of the Americas fit closely to Africa and Europe, and Antarctica, Australia, India and Madagascar fit next to the tip of Southern Africa. But Wegener only took action after reading a paper in Autumn 1911 and seeing that a flooded land-bridge contradicts isostasy.^[7] Wegener's main interest was meteorology, and he wanted to join the Denmark-Greenland expedition scheduled for mid 1912. So he hurried up to present his Continental Drift hypothesis on January 6, 1912. He analyzed either side of the Atlantic Ocean for rock type, geological structures and fossils. He noticed that there was a significant similarity between matching sides of the continents, especially in fossil plants. His hypothesis was thus strongly supported by the physical evidence, and was a pioneering attempt at a rational explanation.

Fossil patterns across continents (Gondwanaland).

From 1912, Wegener publicly advocated the theory of "continental drift", arguing that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have drifted apart. He supposed the cause might be the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation ("Polflucht") or the astronomical precession. Wegener also speculated on sea-floor spreading and the role of the mid-ocean ridges, stating: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ... zone in which the floor of the Atlantic, as it keeps spreading, is continuously tearing open and making space for fresh, relatively fluid and hot sima [rising] from depth.^[8] However, he did not pursue these ideas in his later works.

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 continent, he named "Urkontinent" (German word meaning "origin of the continents",^[9] in a way equivalent to the Greek "Pangaea",^[10] meaning "All-Lands" or "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.

Wegener during the J.P. Koch's Expedition 1912 - 1913 in the winter base "Borg".

Reaction[link]

In his work, Wegener presented a large amount of very strong evidence in support of continental drift, but the mechanism remained elusive. While his ideas attracted a few early supporters such as Alexander Du Toit from South Africa and Arthur Holmes in England, the hypothesis was generally met with skepticism from largely conservative scientists, who were resistant to any change in the status quo. The one American edition of Wegener's work, published in 1925, was received so poorly that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists organized a symposium specifically in opposition to the continental drift hypothesis. Its opponents could argue, as did the Leipziger geologist Franz Kossmat, that the oceanic crust was too "firm" for the continents to "simply plough through", a suggestion which ignored the plasticity of all rocks at depth and at high temperatures and pressures. The comment also ignored the vast time-scale over which continental drift has occurred, effectively the total age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years.

In 1943 George Gaylord Simpson wrote a vehement attack on the theory (as well as the rival theory of sunken land bridges) and put forward his own permanentist views.^[11] Alexander du Toit wrote a rejoinder in the following year,^[12] but G.G.Simpson's influence was so powerful that even in countries previously sympathetic towards continental drift, like Australia, Wegener's hypothesis fell out of favour.

Modern developments[link]

The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century.

In the early 1950s, the new science of paleomagnetism pioneered at Cambridge University by S. K. Runcorn and at Imperial College by P.M.S. Blackett was soon producing data in favour of Wegener's theory. By early 1953 samples taken from India showed that the country had previously been in the Southern hemisphere as predicted by Wegener. By 1959, the theory had enough supporting data that minds were starting to change, particularly in the United Kingdom where, in 1964, the Royal Society held a symposium on the subject.^[13]

Additionally, the 1960s saw several developments in geology, notably the discoveries of seafloor spreading and Wadati-Benioff zones, led to the rapid resurrection of the continental drift hypothesis and its direct descendant, the theory of plate tectonics. Alfred Wegener was quickly recognized as the founding father of one of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century.

With the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), it became possible to measure continental drift directly.^[14]

Awards and honors[link]

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, was established in 1980 on his centenary. It awards the Wegener Medal in his name.^[15] The crater Wegener on the Moon and the crater Wegener on Mars, as well as the asteroid 29227 Wegener and the peninsula where he died in Greenland (Wegener Peninsula near Ummannaq, 71°12′N 51°50′W / 71.2°N 51.833°W / 71.2; -51.833), are named after him.^[16]

The European Geosciences Union sponsors an Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership "for scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in atmospheric, hydrological or ocean sciences, defined in their widest senses, for their merit and their scientific achievements."^[17]

See also[link]

• Hair ice

References[link]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

Selected works[link]

• Wegener, Alfred (1911) (in German). Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre [Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere]. Leipzig: Verlag Von Johann Ambrosius Barth. http://books.google.com/?id=slxDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR1&dq=alfred+wegener. 
• Wegener, Alfred (1912). "Die Herausbildung der Grossformen der Erdrinde (Kontinente und Ozeane), auf geophysikalischer Grundlage" (in German). Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 63: 185–195, 253–256, 305–309. Presented at the annual meeting of the German Geological Society, Frankfurt am Main (January 6, 1912). 
• Wegener, Alfred (July 1912). "Die Entstehung der Kontinente" (in German). Geologische Rundschau 3 (4): 276–292. Bibcode 1912GeoRu...3..276W. DOI:10.1007/BF02202896. 
• Wegener, Alfred (1922) (in German). Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane [The Origin of Continents and Oceans]. ISBN 3-443-01056-3. LCCN unk83068007. 
• Wegener, Alfred (1929) (in German). Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane [The Origin of Continents and Oceans] (4 ed.). Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn Akt. Ges. ISBN 3-443-01056-3. 
• Wegener, Elsie; Loewe, Fritz, eds. (1939). Greenland Journey, The Story of Wegener’s German Expedition to Greenland in 1930-31 as told by Members of the Expedition and the Leader’s Diary. London: Blackie & Son Ltd.. Translated from the seventh German edition by Winifred M. Deans. 
• Wegener, Alfred (1966). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-61708-4. Translated from the fourth revised German edition by John Biram. 
• Wegener, Alfred (1968). The Origin of Continents and Oceans. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-486-61708-4. Translated from the fourth German edition by John Biram with an introduction by B.C. King. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alfred Wegener

• Wegener Institute website
• USGS biography of Wegener
• Wegener biography at Pangaea.org
• Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) - Biographical material

Edvard Grieg (1876)

Edvard Grieg (1891)
portrait by Eilif Peterssen

Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup. (1899)

Edvard Hagerup Grieg /ˈɛdʋɑɖ ˈhɑːgəɾʉːp gɾiːg/ (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.^[1]

Biography[link]

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on 15 June 1843. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup.^[2][3] The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Grieg's great-grandfather traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen.

Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical area. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of 6. Grieg studied in several schools,^{[clarification needed]} including Tank's School.^[4] He often brought in samples of his music to class.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull,^[5] who was a family friend; Bull's brother was married to Grieg's aunt.^[6] Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory,^[5] then directed by Ignaz Moscheles.^{[citation needed]}

Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he achieved very good grades in most areas. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students. In the spring of 1860, he survived a life-threatening lung disease. The following year he made his debut as a concert pianist, in Karlshamn, Sweden. In 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included Beethoven's Pathétique sonata. (Grieg's own recording of his Piano Sonata, made late in his life, confirms that he was an excellent pianist).

In 1863, Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak (composer of the Norwegian national anthem), who became a good friend and source of great inspiration. Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a funeral march in his honor.

On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup. The next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. She died in 1869 from meningitis. In the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania (as Oslo was then named). ^[7]

In 1868, Franz Liszt, who had not yet met Grieg, wrote a testimonial for him to the Norwegian Ministry of Education, which led to Grieg's obtaining a travel grant. The two men met in Rome in 1870. On Grieg's first visit, they went over Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1, which pleased Liszt greatly. On his second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto, which Liszt proceeded to sightread (including the orchestral arrangement). Liszt's rendition greatly impressed his audience, although Grieg gently pointed out to him that he played the first movement too quickly. Liszt also gave Grieg some advice on orchestration, (for example, to give the melody of the second theme in the first movement to a solo trumpet).

In 1874–76, Grieg composed incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular in the orchestral suites or piano and piano-duet arrangements.

Grieg had close ties with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Harmonien), and later became Music Director of the orchestra from 1880–1882. In 1888, Grieg met Tchaikovsky in Leipzig. Grieg was struck by the sadness in Tchaikovsky.^[8] Tchaikovsky thought very highly of Grieg's music, praising its beauty, originality and warmth.^[9]

Later years[link]

Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen

Grieg's later life brought him fame. The Norwegian government awarded him a pension. In the spring 1903, Grieg made nine 78-rpm gramophone recordings of his piano music in Paris; all of these historic discs have been reissued on both LPs and CDs and, despite limited fidelity, show his artistry as a pianist. Grieg also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproducing system, all of which survive today and can be heard.

In 1906, he met the composer and pianist Percy Grainger in London. Grainger was a great admirer of Grieg's music and a strong empathy was quickly established. In a 1907 interview, Grieg stated: “I have written Norwegian Peasant Dances that no one in my country can play, and here comes this Australian who plays them as they ought to be played! He is a genius that we Scandinavians cannot do other than love.”^[10]

Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His final words were "Well, if it must be so." The funeral drew between 30,000 and 40,000 people out on the streets of his home town to honor him. Following his wish, his own Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak was played in an orchestration by his friend Johan Halvorsen, who had married Grieg's niece. In addition, the Funeral March movement from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 was played. His and his wife's ashes are entombed in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen.

Music[link]

Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata.^[2] His many short pieces for piano – often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances – led some to call him the "Chopin of the North".^{[who?][citation needed]}

Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Notturno, Op. 54, No. 4 Performed live by Mark Gasser Grieg plays his butterfly. Recorded 1906 Grieg plays his Wedding day. Recorded 1903

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The Piano Concerto is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the Christmas 1971 Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by André Previn.

Some of the Lyric Pieces (for piano) are also well-known, as is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King: "I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King – something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible."^[11]

Grieg's popular Holberg Suite was originally written for the piano, and later arranged by the composer for string orchestra. Grieg wrote songs, in which he set lyrics by poets Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling and others. Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky used a theme by Grieg for the variations with which he closed his Third String Quartet. Norwegian pianist Eva Knardahl recorded the composer's complete piano music during 1978 and 1980. The recordings were reissued in 2006 on 12 compact discs by BIS Records.

List of selected works[link]

• Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8
• Concert Overture In Autumn, Op. 11
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
• Incidental music to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's play Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 22
• Incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, Op. 23
• Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song in G minor, Op. 24
• String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27
• Album for Male Chorus, Op. 30
• Two Elegiac Melodies for Strings, Op. 34
• Four Norwegian Dances for piano four hands, Op. 35 (later orchestrated)
• Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36
• Holberg Suite for piano, later arr. for string orchestra, Op. 40
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46
• Lyric Suite for orchestra, Op. 54 (orchestration of four Lyric Pieces)
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55
• Suite from Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56
• Four Symphonic Dances for piano, later arr. for orchestra, Op. 64
• Haugtussa Song Cycle after Arne Garborg, Op. 67
• Slåtter (Peasant Dances) for piano, Op. 72
• Sixty-six Lyric Pieces for piano in ten books, Opp. 12, 38, 43, 47, 54, 57, 62, 65, 68 and 71, including: Arietta, To the Spring, Little Bird, Butterfly, Notturno, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, At Your Feet, Longing For Home, March of the Dwarfs, Poème érotique and Gone.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Grieg's music in popular culture
• Song of Norway the operetta.

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Benestad, Finn; Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (1990) [1980] (in Norwegian). Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren (2 ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug. ISBN 82-03-16373-4. 

Further reading[link]

English[link]

• Grieg The Writer ed. by Bjarne Kortsen. Vol I: Essays and Articles, vol II: Letters to Frants Beyer (editio norvegica, Bergen/Norway 1972)
• Edvard Grieg in England by Lionel Carley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-207-0
• Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Cultural Identity by Daniel Grimley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-210-0
• Songs of Edvard Grieg by Beryl Foster (The Boydell Press new edition 2007) ISBN 1-84383-343-3
• Edvard Grieg by Henry Theophilius Finck (Bastian Books new edition 2008) ISBN 978-0-554-96326-6
• Grieg by John Horton (London 1950)

Norwegian[link]

• Benestad, Finn/Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (2007): Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), Oslo. ISBN 978-82-03-23459-0
• Bredal, Dag/Strøm-Olsen, Terje (1992): Edvard Grieg – Musikken er en kampplass. Aventura Forlag A/S, Oslo. ISBN 82-588-0890-7
• Johansen, David Monrad (1956): Edvard Grieg. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.
• Bøe, Finn (1949): Trekk av Edvard Griegs personlighet. Oslo.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edvard Grieg

• Grieg 2007. Official Site for 100th year commemoration of Edvard Grieg
• The Grieg archives at Bergen Public Library
• Troldhaugen Museum, Grieg's home
• Biography of Grieg by prof. Harald Herresthal
• Works by Edvard Grieg on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Edvard Grieg statue by Sigvald Asbjornsen Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
• Films about Grieg's life: What Price Immortality? (1999), Song of Norway (1970)
• Edvard Grieg picture collection at flickr commons

Recordings by Edvard Grieg[link]

• Papillon – Lyric Piece, Op. 43, no. 1 as recorded by Grieg on piano roll, 17 April 1906, Leipzig (Info)
• Legendary Piano Recordings: The Complete Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Pugno, and Diémer (Marston Records)
• Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music In Historic Interpretations (SIMAX Classics – PSC1809)
• Grieg and his Circle (Pearl, GEMM 9933 CD)
• Grieg spiller Grieg (Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen)
• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)

Music scores[link]

• Free scores by Edvard Grieg at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores at the Mutopia Project

polski:Edvard Grieg