(ËvÉr bÉl) adj. 1. of or consisting of words: verbal ability. 2. spoken rather than written; oral: verbal communication. 3. concerned with words only, rather than with the ideas, facts, or realities expressed: a purely verbal distinction. 4. corresponding word for word; verbatim: a verbal translation.
Because their hypothesis requires that Earth arose from water-containing materials already present in the inner solar system, it's called the wet-accretion hypothesis. Most of Earth's water has an indigenous origin, says Drake.
In 1910, a young German scientist named Alfred Wegener (vay guh nur) became curious about the relationship of the continents. He hypothesized that Earthâs continents had moved! Wegenerâs hypothesis was that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have since drifted apart. Wegenerâs idea that the continents slowly moved over Earthâs surface became known as continental drift.