[King Prout]

Alfred Weggener was laughed off the stage at his first presentation of his continental drift theory. Not a scientist of his age ever adopted the Weggenerian view.

vs.

For all practical purposes they were dead since tectonics didn't come along until 40 years after his work was first translated into English. He proposed it long before that event. Working scientists (with all their degrees and so forth) were undoubtedly in their late 20s and early 30s at the youngest when they first read WEggener's thesis. 40 years later they were like some of the elder denezens of Free Republic ~ still writing, but trapped in their crystalized memories, unable to adjust to the new world.

ah, so now you move from a doubled-absolute statement-as-fact into equivocation and pure speculation. very nice. good day.

[muawiyah]

The International Geophysical Year (1959) involved massive studies all over the world for a variety of reasons. One of the outcomes was the production of sufficient evidence to demonstrate the reality of plate tectonics as the probable mechanism for changes observed in the Earth's surface.

Prior to that plate tectonics had its supporters, but it was not a required belief.