The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other. Wegener took the areas that had been covered by ice sheets and fitted them together around the south pole. HIS CONCLUSION - the continents were once part of a single larger continent that then split apart, drifting to their present positions over the last 300 million years.