Wegener's book on continental drift was published in 1915.

Wegener关于大陆漂移的著作出版于1915年。

There's some kind of continental drift going on.

在感觉我们之间产生巨大分歧。

People didn't understand continental drift because they didn't understand seafloor spreading.

人们不相信大陆漂移说因为他们不了解海底扩张学说。

In 1912 meteorologist Alfred Wegener came forward with the first truly detailed explanation of continental drift.

1912 年，气象学家阿尔弗雷德·魏格纳提出了第一个真正详细的大陆漂移解释理论。

This was the mechanism that could drive continental drift, now understood as plate tectonics.

动大陆漂移的机制，在被称为板块构造。

Italian geologist Roberto Mantovani published his hypothesis to explain continental drift — how the continents have been moving slowly over hundreds of millions of years.

意大利地质学家罗伯托·曼托瓦尼发表了他的假说来解释大陆漂移，即大陆如何在数亿年的时间里缓慢移动的。

Just like any detective story, the case of continental drift required keen observation, relentless questioning, and a little bit of serendipity.

就像任何侦探故事一样，大陆漂移案件需要敏锐的观察、不懈的质疑和一点点偶然性。

So why did it take people so long to believe in continental drift, when it's obvious that Africa and South America fit together like a puzzle?

为什么大陆漂移说经过那么长时间才被普遍认可，不一目了然吗，非洲和南美洲可以像拼图一样拼在一起？

This is a 'continental drift book' only to the extent that Wegener was interested in that topic and later became famous for it.

一本“大陆漂移书”，只韦格纳对该主题感兴趣并后来因此而闻名。

Over the next decades, other scientists brought forth more evidence for the theory of continental drift, such as the presence of identical plant fossils in North American and European coal deposits.

在接下来的几十年里，其他科学家为大陆漂移理论提出了更多的证据，比如在北美和欧洲的煤矿中发了相同的植物化石。

In 1953 he confessed: I have never succeeded in freeing myself from a nagging prejudice against continental drift; in my geological bones, so to speak, I feel the hypothesis is a fantastic one.

1953年，他承认：“对于大陆漂移学说，我从来没有摆脱过一种令人不安的反感；在作为地质学家的骨子里，恕我直言，我觉得个假设个荒唐的假设。”

Yet plate tectonics is a descendant of Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift, in quite the same way that modern evolutionary theory is a descendant of Darwin's theory of natural selection.

然而板块构造学阿尔弗雷德·韦格纳大陆漂移理论的后裔，就像代进化论达尔文自然择理论的后裔一样。

The theory of continental drift was also instrumental in developing another theory — that of plate tectonics, which explains that the movement of large sections of Earth's crust, called tectonic plates, causes changes in Earth's surface.

大陆漂移理论也有助于发展另一种理论——板块构造理论，该理论解释了地壳大块区域（即构造板块）的运动导致了地球表面的变化。

When I started writing about Wegener's life and work, one of the most intriguing things about him for me was that, although he came up with a theory on continental drift, he was not a geologist.

当我开始写韦格纳的生活和工作时，对我来说，关于他最有趣的事情之一，尽管他提出了大陆漂移理论，但他并不一位地质学家。