The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-12-18
A DRY TIME.
When the Earth Drinks up Her Oceans.

Prof. Cookley, of New York, says:
Most of the planets have probably
cooled down by radiation TO a solid
under crust like the earth. The sun,
owing 10 his greater mass, is still
fiery globe not yet cooled down so as
to have solid crust. But our moon.
being body of small mass only about
one-eighticth of the earth's mass, is
supposed to have had time 10 cool
down to solid globe all the way from
its surface to its ceiter. Its Internal
heat is supposed to have been all radi-
ated away into the surrounding cold
space. Now, the hot interior mass of
the earth can, of course. contain no
water, and little or none OF the free
gases that constitute an atmosphere e,
They would be boiled off. expanded
and driven to the surface where are
found now the great bulk of our oceans
and our atmosphere. But when The
earth shall have parted with all ner in
ternal heat. having thrown it into the
surrounding cold space as the moon
has done, then the cold. solid, but por-
Gus mass within its present crust.
which is now incapable of absorbing
water or air. on account OF the present
high temperature. will begin to drink
up the water and air, just as the parch-
Ell soil after summers drought drinks
up the rain. and the ground is dry in
few minutes after the shower. But
YOU may well ask. could the solid por-
Ous mass within the present crust of
the earth thus drink up the whole of
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans and cause all the waters of our
globe to disappear? Let us examine
this more closely.
While the interior of the earth re-
mains as hot as it is at present it is no
more possible for the water and air of
our globe to penetrate TO these fiery
| regions than it is for drop of water
| to remain on a hot stone. But the
earth is losing its heat day by day and
year by year, radiating it out into the
surrounding cold space. / know il has
been computed that the earth receives
from the sun annually just as much
heat as it loses in year by radiation
into the surrounding space. Grant
that il be so for the present and for
many thousands of years to come. But
the trouble is that the sun himself is
cooling off, and, therefore. will not be
| always able to send us as much heat
as he does at present. The time will,
therefore, surely come when we shall
lose more heat by radiation into space
than the sun will be able to return to
us. Then it will be only a question of
time for the earth gradually to cool
down, as the moon has already done.
from surface to center. When that
time comes, will not the dry but solid
and porous core of our globe drink up
the oceans and atmosphere, causing
them to disappear, not into large cav
ernous pockets, but into the minute
pores of its substance?
The proposition appears to be estab-
lish. by strict calculation that the
interior of the earth when cold will be
able to absorb more than four times,
possibly more than thirty times, the
amount of water now on its surface.
Now, it seems certain that in the man.
ner first explained the earth will con.
tinue to lose both its superficial water
and its atmosphere. The earth, the
other planets, and even the sun him
self, are regarded as doomed at some
future dav to the same fate. Mclan'
choly fate! some will say. But why
complain of the general law of nature:
Everything in nature has its morning
of life, its high meridian of glory and
strength, its evening decline and its
midnight of blackness and death. l.
the case of a worlds that the last
term of a series?