At a meeting convened by the German Geological Society in Frankfurt, Alfred Wegener introduced his hypothesis of continental drift, a concept suggesting that continents were not static entities, but instead were capable of movement across the Earth’s surface. This presentation marked a significant departure from the prevailing geologic paradigms which held that continents were immobile. Wegener's hypothesis posited that millions of years ago, all continents were united in a supercontinent known as Pangaea. This formation eventually broke apart, and the continents drifted apart to their present locations over geological time spans.

Wegener's evidence for such drastic movements included the matching shapes of coastlines, such as the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa, as well as fossil similarities across these now-separated continents. He also pointed to geological similarities, such as mountain ranges and rock formations, that appeared to align across current land boundaries. His ideas were initially met with skepticism from many in the scientific community, who favored static earth models, and it took several decades for his work to gain the support it deserved, particularly with the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s.

The implications of Wegener's theory extended beyond geology; they touched on aspects of biology, paleontology, and even climate studies. The notion that past continents were once part of a supercontinent altered the understanding of biodiversity and the distribution of species. His work laid the foundation for fundamental changes in how scientists understood Earth's geological processes, making Wegener not only a significant figure in geophysics but also in the broader scientific community.