American Intransigence: The Rejection Of Continental Drift In The Great Debates Of The 1920'S

Abstract

Historians of the early debate on the Wegenerian continental drift hypothesis all point to the 1926 symposium of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists as instrumental in turning American geologists against Alfred Wegener. Many of them believe that the anti-Wegener papers presented in this symposium were cogent enough to warrant rejecting all forms of mobilism. I argue herein that neither of the above contentions is well founded. Drift was discussed extensively in the United States before 1926, the symposium in New York was inconsequential compared with the publication in 1928 of what purported to be papers given at New York, and the final contemptuous rejection of drift was sparked by a concerted effort of a few mandarins of the geological community who were deaf to the judgments of foreigners. The coup de grace was administered by Bailey Willis and Charles Schuchert in coordinated articles published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin in 1932.

Geological exploration of South Atlantic islands and its contributions to the continental drift debate of the early 20th century

“…1929, p. 94) that "[i]n the depth chart one can clearly see how the echeloned chains were torn off seriatim from the drifting blocks and then left behind" None of this impressed the implacable opponents of continental drift. Between 1926 and 1928 the USA's geological establishment had mounted a concerted, coordinated and successful assault on the theory (Newman 1995;Oreskes 1999) which, inevitably, had a negative effect on European opinion. In the prevailing view, the necessary intercontinental connections required by palaeobiogeography were provided by land bridges that had now foundered.…”

“…according to which the separation of America and Europe was caused by a horizontal movement." Newman (1995) has pointed out that Holtedahl's (1920) paper (in the American Journal of Science) was the first mention of Wegener's 'displacement hypothesis' in an American periodical but, by 1929, the widespread and emphatic American dismissal of continental drift (Newman 1995;Oreskes 1999) would have reinforced Holtedahl's inclination to reject that process as a solution to the development of the Scotia Arc. Nevertheless, Du Toit (1937, p. 36) listed Holtedahl amongst the geologists sympathetic to the continental drift hypothesis.…”

“…The largely negative response, particularly from the geological establishment in the United States of America, has been extensively researched and documented (Newman 1995;Oreskes 1999); the more ambivalent, but still mostly dismissive view from Europe has been summarized by Wood (1985). Its generally hostile reception in the Northern Hemisphere ensured the theory's quiescence until the plate tectonic revolution of the late 1960s.…”

Geology reviewed for the Falkland Islands and their offshore sedimentary basins, South Atlantic Ocean

“…The rejection of continental drift by the geological mainstream has been well- Newman 1995;Oreskes 1999) and the majority view at the end of the 1920s was illustrated by Gregory (1929) Carey (Australia), whilst many of those geologists active in the South Atlantic region also viewed the process as an attractive explanation for the regional geology (Stone 2015). For the Falkland Islands, the most radical proposal came from Adie (1952a) who aligned structural and sedimentological trends to support the rotation of a Falkland Islands continental block through about 180° from an original position adjacent to the east coast of South Africa (Fig.…”

The role of latitude in mobilism debates

“…There are already many accounts of the development of tectonics (e.g., ref. 20 and references therein) and a few of the early failure of geodetic measurements to detect current motions (34,35), although not of their remarkable success in recent decades. Here I briefly summarize the major innovations of categories T and C. To explain how the general paleogeographic frame (category L) came to be established is my main purpose.…”