Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-10-27

THE Maine journal Of Educdtscn has
translated an article from the Casmos, in
which Stsnislas Meunier gives some curl
GUS speculations with regard to the pres
emit physical condition of the moon.
His theory is, and he has the support Of
eminent astronomers like Beer, Moedler
and Arago, that the moon il q dead star.
He draws this inference from q singular
appearance upon the surface, which Is
called grooves" by the physicists. These
grooves have parallel sides nearly . mile
in width and from ten to one hundred
and twenty miles in length. There are
already ninety of them, and it IL supposed
that more are in process OF formation.
Reasoning from analogy, We must believe
that at some poriod in the distant past
the moon had an atmosphere and water,
and also that on account Of her inferior
size sbe had cooled much more quickly
than the earth. The water penetrating
the crust has been absorbed as the de.
crease Of internal heat increased the
thickness of the crust, until long before
the cooling process had reached the cen
tire, the water had disappeared. The
rocks then solidifying, as the heat supply
diminished, contracted In q manner re.
sembling the appearance of basalt, and
produced the grooves into which the at
mosphere settled. Hence comes the cha
otto appearance of the moon, with its
immense mountains, volcanoes, and era
tiers. Some astronomers have detected an
appearance of action In some Of the vol
canoes but the general opinion is that
every vestige of physical life has long
since departed from the surface of our
satellite.
These theories are all very well when
applied TO our distant neighbor, the
moon but we cannot shut our eyes to
the startling fact that the earth is under
going similar process of transformation.
Biologists place q close resemblance be-
tween the circles in the moon and the
circles of granite and porphyry upon the
earth. They have also discovered evil
dences of fine qualification among the
lunar mountains, while the volcanic for
nations bear a discernable analogy to
those of Tenerifie and Palma.
According to the new theory, the fol-
lowing is the process slowly taking place
on the earth's surface; for she, like her
subordinate, is gradually cooling. 1t il
estimated that one-fittieth of the original
ocean has been already absorbed, and that
when the crust of the earth has become
one hundred miles in thickness every drop
of water will disappear. 1t is also esti.
mated that the earth could easily absorb
fifty oceans like those which now cover a
large portion Of the surface. All the wa
ter at present on the earth constitutes
only one twenty four thousandth part OF
its weight, and once absorbed would be.
come insensible to chemical analysis. The
water being absorbed, the earth will crack
open like the moon, and form similar
grooves into which the atmosphere will
settle. Long before this era all life will
have ceased.
Whether there is any truth in the mat
ter or not we have no immediate cause OF
alarm, for the process will not advance
enough to give the slightest record in the
short space of single life time. Accord
ing to the experiments Of Bischof, 1t will
take nine millions of years for the earth
to cool down fifteen degrees. This loss ID
almost imperceptible, as the internal heat
adds only thirtieth of degree to the
temperature of the surface Providence
.IOurHiHL