GEOLOGIST

Alfred Wegener

1880 - 1930

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Alfred Lothar Wegener (; German: [ˈʔalfʁeːt ˈveːɡənɐ]; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. 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 as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth (German: Kontinentalverschiebung). His hypothesis was not accepted by mainstream geology 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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Alfred Wegener has received more than 2,479,324 page views. His biography is available in 80 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 72 in 2019). Alfred Wegener is the most popular geologist, the 109th most popular biography from Germany (down from 102nd in 2019) and the most popular German Geologist.

Alfred Wegener is most famous for his theory of continental drift.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.5M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 74.59

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 80

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.62

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.50

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among GEOLOGISTS

Among geologists, Alfred Wegener ranks 1 out of 90. After him are Milutin Milanković, Charles Francis Richter, Nicolas Steno, Charles Lyell, Inge Lehmann, Andrija Mohorovičić, Mary Anning, James Hutton, Eduard Suess, Friedrich Mohs, and Francis Beaufort.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1880, Alfred Wegener ranks 3. Before him are Helen Keller, and Guillaume Apollinaire. After him are Douglas MacArthur, Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Fedor von Bock, Oswald Spengler, Robert Musil, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, George Marshall, Franz Marc, and André Derain. Among people deceased in 1930, Alfred Wegener ranks 3. Before him are Arthur Conan Doyle, and Fridtjof Nansen. After him are Ilya Repin, Zewditu, Vladimir Mayakovsky, William Howard Taft, Allvar Gullstrand, Joan Gamper, Christiaan Eijkman, Fritz Pregl, and Miguel Primo de Rivera.

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Others Deceased in 1930

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Alfred Wegener ranks 109 out of 7,253. Before him are Max Born (1882), Willy Brandt (1913), Carl Maria von Weber (1786), Frederick III, German Emperor (1831), Caspar David Friedrich (1774), and Henry the Fowler (876). After him are Albert Speer (1905), Clara Zetkin (1857), Bruce Willis (1955), Theodor W. Adorno (1903), Nikolaus Otto (1832), and Walter Benjamin (1892).

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Among GEOLOGISTS In Germany

Among geologists born in Germany, Alfred Wegener ranks 1. After him are Friedrich Mohs (1773), Beno Gutenberg (1889), Christian Leopold von Buch (1774), Julius von Haast (1822), Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann (1797), Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald (1902), Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829), Ferdinand Zirkel (1838), Harry Rosenbusch (1836), Oskar Lenz (1848), and Rudolf Geiger (1894).

German born Geologists

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