[1] To explain the complex processes of Orogeny, he developed his "theory of undercurrent" with the idea of a partially plastic deep Earth's crust (asthenosphere).

[2][3] Ampferer attended grammar school and then studied physics, mathematics and geology at the University of Innsbruck from 1895, where he obtained his doctorate in 1899.

[7] Otto Ampferer's name is associated, among other things, with the theory of undercurrent, a hypothesis on the formation of mountain ranges, which later contributed to the development of plate tectonics.

In 1906 he wrote an analysis On the motion of the Folded Mountains, wherein he opposed the Contraction Theory of Albert Heim,[8][9] which, however, was only finally refuted around 1960.

In his publication On the movement pattern of folded mountains he presented some geotectonic considerations of processes occurring in the deep crust of the Earth and in the upper mantle.

Ampferer recognized in these undercurrents the forces that lead to the formation of ocean basins and high mountains on the edges of the drifting continents.

[10] Ampferer considered a detachment of the Moon from the Earth as the cause for the unevenly distributed lithosphere in the time of the primeval continent Pangaea.