Question

What was the discovery scientists made in the 1950's that led them to then accept Wegener's theory of Continental Drift?

Answer 1

Answer & explanation:

The theory of continental drift emerged a long time ago. When mapping some points on Earth, scholars suspected that the continents were united in the past.

Francis Bacon suggested in 1620 that the east coast of the South American continent and the west coast of Africa fit together perfectly, giving the impression that they had parted in the remote past. A similar observation to this had already been made by another scholar named Abraham Ortelius, around 1596.

A century later, hypotheses became a scientific theory with previously elaborated arguments. Then, the theory of Continental Drift was officially born, when the German Alfred Wegener formulated it in 1912, establishing that the Earth had been divided, in its slow fragmentation, into two great continents, Laurasia and Gondwana.