Alex du Toit

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Alexander Logie du Toit (1878-1948) was a geologist from South Africa, and an early supporter of Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift.

Working from his own extensive knowledge of the geology of southern Africa, du Toit was struck by similarities to that of eastern South America, and in 1927 published a review of the stratigraphic and radio-isotope evidence from these regions that supported Wegener's ideas. A later book, Our Wandering Continents (1937), expanded and improved this work, and, departing somewhat from Wegener, proposed two original supercontinents, a northern/equatorial Laurasia and a southern/polar Gondwanaland.

Since 1949, the year after du Toit's death, the Geological Society of South Africa has held a biennial lecture series in his honour.

[edit] External links

• Biography (Charles H. Smith, Western Kentucky University)
• Obituary notice (Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 6, 385-395, Nov. 1949)
• Review of biography of du Toit (Geographical Review, 41, 513-514)
• De Beers Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture 2006