ABSTRACT
Heinrich Wettstein (1831-1895) from Switzerland should be considered a forerunner of global mobilism. His 1880 book “Die Strömungen des Festen, Flussigen und Gasförmigen und ihre Bedeutung fur Geologie, Astronomie, Klimatologie und Meteorologie” presented the hypothesis of westward displacement and deformation of continents under the effect of the sun’s gravitational pull. According to Wettstein, mountain ranges are formed when westward creeping sedimentary sequences encounter and override obstacles on the upper surface of a rigid substratum. However, formation of mountains with related earthquakes and volcanism is only a temporary and secondary effect of a larger generalized westward creeping of the continents themselves over a similar rigid substratum. Such large-scale displacements, deformations, temporary separations, and junctions of continents across fixed climatic belts are demonstrated, said Wettstein, by variations of superposed fossil faunas and floras and by their dispersal patterns. Although the force assumed by Wettstein was subsequently demonstrated to be negligible, he broke the strait jacket of the contraction theory with a grandiose and early vision of global mobilism.
