Frank Taylor

In a 1910 presentation to the Geological Society of America, Taylor suggested that the continents had slowly moved over geological time. He proposed this theory independently, publishing his ideas before Alfred Wegener's more famous 1912 continental drift hypothesis.

Taylor hypothesized that the continents were dragged toward the equator by the moon's gravitational tidal forces acting on the Earth's crust. While geologists later disproved this specific mechanism, his observational work regarding continental movement was historically significant.

Surprisingly, Taylor was largely an amateur geologist who made his living as a wealthy businessman and real estate investor. Despite his lack of formal academic standing, his extensive glacial geology research was highly respected by his peers.

Much like Wegener's later hypothesis, the scientific community largely rejected Taylor's proposed mechanisms for continental movement. It wasn't until the 1960s, with the discovery of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading, that the basic concept of his theory was validated.