Early history by
Peter Paul Rubens, 1633
Abraham Ortelius , James O. Berkland argued that Reclus should be recognized "in the history of the development of plate tectonic theory as one of its foremost pioneers and, perhaps, as its founder". In 2021, Reclus, a tectonics database, was named for Elisée Reclus.
Wegener and his predecessors Apart from the earlier speculations mentioned above, the idea that the American continents had once formed a single landmass with Eurasia and Africa was postulated by several scientists before
Alfred Wegener's 1912 paper. Wegener was the first to use the phrase "continental drift" (1912, 1915) Willem van der Gracht was virtually the only tectonicist who supported mobilism. In 1939 an international geological conference was held in
Frankfurt, organized by the fixist
Hans Cloos, == See also ==