Modern concepts of Earth dynamics anticipated by Alfred Wegener in 1912

In his first publication on continental drift, Alfred Wegener anticipated sea-floor spreading, the functional relationship between bathymetry and age or temperature below the sea floor, perhaps mantle convection, and some aspects of plate tectonics. Some of these insights, such as sea-floor spreading and bathymetry with age, did not appear in his later work; others, such as convection and plate tectonics, were taken up when new evidence became available. His intuition led him to these insights, and he had a very clear perception of the distinction between facts and speculation.