Alfred Wagner proposed the idea of plate tectonics decades before this, citing the fit of the continents, the same species of plants and animals on continents separated by ocean, and glacial striations as evidence. The problem was that no one knew HOW the plates separated.
He actually described the continents as scraping across an ancient and immobile seafloor. This was deemed mechanically implausible and contributed greatly to the rejection of Continental Drift. If Al stuck with his detailed phenomenological approach, there may have been wider adoption of his detailed and careful observations.
Well, am geophysicist for 20+ years, and I teach this stuff, but the best source I remember reading is “The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science” by Naomi Oreskes.
Plates that move? Psh, Id rather propose that a whole continent called Lemuria just vanished.
Plants do move. Have you never seen a dandelion blowing in the wind or an acorn fall from a tree.
