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Social Studies 5: The Impact of One: Alfred Wegener’s Ideas and Pangaea 66 Views
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Description:
Get ready to learn about the biggest breakup the planet has ever seen. It all started with a relationship that the tabloids liked to call "Pangaea"...
Transcript
- 00:06
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:13
While curiosity may have killed the cat… [Gravestone for Mr. Fluffers]
- 00:16
… human curiosity has helped change the way we see ourselves and our world. [A zombie walking around]
- 00:20
Curious people see simple things as clues for… less simple things. [Magnifying glass shows an atom]
- 00:24
And they know that sometimes the first answer doesn’t tell the whole story, and that other
Full Transcript
- 00:28
observations might need to be made to get a clear picture of the truth. [Scientist looking through a telescope]
- 00:31
Which is a good thing. That’s how innovation happens.
- 00:34
Alfred Wegener was a curious person who saw something others didn’t.
- 00:38
In fact, because what Wegener saw was so new, at first people didn’t believe him…which [People looking unimpressed]
- 00:43
caused him to mope in his room all day listening to sad songs.
- 00:47
That’s right, Wegener was the first emo kid. [Emo kid sat on his bed]
- 00:49
Oh, and he was also a German scientist who, in 1912, put forward the theory of continental drift. [Wegener holding up his theory paper]
- 00:55
One day, Wegener was looking at a map of the world and saw that South America and Africa
- 00:59
lined up, almost like puzzle pieces. [Africa and South America put together]
- 01:01
Wegener believed that the continents might have been joined together once…
- 01:04
…and then…split up.
- 01:06
Break-ups are hard, even for land masses. [Different stages of continental drift shown]
- 01:08
Needing proof for his theory, Wegener decided to go all CSI on it. [Wegener at a crime scene]
- 01:12
And by that we mean “Continental Science Investigations.” [Wegener holding a briefcase that says 'Continental Science Investigations']
- 01:16
Wegener did indeed find evidence to support his one-continent theory, including small,
- 01:20
prehistoric fossils found on both continents… [Picture of a fossil]
- 01:23
… glaciers that had left scars in desert environments…
- 01:25
… and coal deposits found in unusual places.
- 01:28
Wegener theorized that at one point, all of the continents we see today must have been [Santa Claus holding a lump of coal]
- 01:32
joined in a single land mass, which he called “Pangaea”
- 01:35
…from the Greek word “pan” meaning “all” and “Gaia”, meaning “Mother Earth."
- 01:39
Makes more sense than naming it “Paul,” right?
- 01:42
Wegner’s theory is widely accepted now, but in
- 01:44
his time it was crazy stuff that flew in the face of accepted ideas about how landmasses [Page rips itself away and flies out the window]
- 01:49
on Earth were formed. So… his ideas about continental drift made him a kind of scientific rebel. [The paper hits someones windshield and they wipe it off]
- 01:54
Unfortunately, as has happened way too often in history, people had a hard time accepting
- 01:58
something that was so different from what they’d always believed was true. [Bars surrounding the scientist]
- 02:02
The scientific community challenged Wegener.
- 02:04
Which was a problem because, well, Wegener couldn’t actually explain how the continents [People asking Wegener questions as he presents his theory]
- 02:09
might have drifted. He just knew that they had.
- 02:11
It wasn’t until the 1950s that research into plate tectonics would fill in this gap [A giant book 'Plate Tectonics for Dummies' fills a canyon]
- 02:16
in Wegener’s theory. Unfortunately… Wegener wasn’t around to see his theory justified.
- 02:20
Which is massively disappointing, if you catch our drift.
- 02:24
In 1930, Wegener died while on an expedition in Greenland. [Wegener in huge winter coat]
- 02:28
He joined a long list of notable individuals in history who died before they saw their
- 02:32
accomplishments gain wide acceptance.
- 02:35
Still, it’s pretty cool that the curiosity of one person who lived a hundred years ago [Wegener's grave stone]
- 02:38
could so radically change our understanding of the world.
- 02:41
And hey, at least he’s being featured in a Shmoop video.
- 02:44
We like to think that’s the true peak of success… [Someone watching a Shmoop video on their computer]
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