why did it take years for the theory of continental drift to be accepted
The theory of continental drift was not accepted for many years. One problem was that a plausible driving force was missing. A second problem was that Wegener's estimate of the velocity of continental motion, 250 cm/year, was implausibly high.(The currently accepted rate for the separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa is about 2.5 cm/year). And it did not help that Wegener was not a geologist.s late as 1953 â just five years before Carey introduced the theory of plate tectonics â the theory of continental drift was rejected by the physicist Scheidegger on the following grounds.