Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-10-21
OLD MOTHERS EARTH.
HARDLY ANY TWO SCIENTISTS AGREE
AS TO ITS AGE.
Some Speculation About the Tiny
Atom ga the Boundless Universe

length of time which has elapsed since
the earth's crust became solid. Consid-
ering the very slow rate at which rocks
are deposited by water and the i'm
menSe thickness of the beds of these
''stratified' rocks. as they are called,
1t seems that ut least l.0O0.O0 1000
years have passed since the globe evOlv-
ed in lis present shape out of the whirl
ing mass of i~ncandescent matter which
1t must once have been.
But Lord Kelvin. arguing from tho
known rate ot less OF heat. declared
that not moro than l~C0,o0o,000 years is
the limit Of time which has passed by
since iiril rocks appeared and life be
gan upon the earth. More recently Fro
fessor Tait declared that Il tenth Of
Lord Kelvin estimate niigit be nearer
the truth. Ill biologists. however. de
clare that the latter estimate is too
low.
We know wita the utmost vNactitide
how heavy or littia world is II yoa
put down the l@Hre 6 and follow 1t b?
twenty-one NAV hs, yon have it within
a very few million tons. Roughly
speakin-. ills Implies that ,he earth
is five and uao-ha.f tines as heavy aS
a globe Of water 81 the s,isa sic.
But. in @p,tc Of t;.s accurate knowl
edge of the ear-h'; weight. we haze no
real idea Of what ia tAc corditien o.
things inside orr planrt. Tiousauds of
experiments made In al iarts Of tlr
world show t..t tie temperature rises
on an avcra.n Ytanf - docYnr faY every
sixty feet neloy. ihr s|lrfav1. II this
rate Of ir-rnasr continues regularly
toward he caAt"i. til, part Df the
that iiua@inntinA is Wnalle 10 grasp II.
When fiji, fact OF iNrr4 use of tpls4. era
ture with frpth tirsi became as-er.
tanned ~geoloeis.s .0t tlp idea THAI W.
were Twins, upon q ~furio's furnace. %
which volcanoes wcre ~ csrnuc pip,s
Now we know better jlaH tl39t. ~"
have found. anon. o.ler til 9yS i,at
an eartlQuakc ia .5HNsa is ,hlc tn rn,
lister itself in England. TIN, 3ctra,i.T
happened in tie case OF The d",sasfer 10
north japan some years a-o. Wicn -.
coo people lost their lives. = reno o.
this kind could not pass i9l"S tht
earth had :; rigidity approaching IN1i
Of steel. and observations OF tides and
the attractions exercised upon MS iy
sun and moon have made ii pretty Ger.
tain that our world is iuss about as
hard and solid as so much steel.
This does away with The l!auid int
! rior theory and makes it fairly certain
that the earth is solid all through.
with perhaps occasional Accommodations
Of fluid rock here and there in parts
where for some reason or other the
, pressure is not SO great as it is in 9th
er.
1t also upsets the old theory of volca-
noes. and the modern idea with regard
to These mountains of death and de
struction is that water from the sur
face finds it's way through a few mile.
below the surface. and then. being sud
denly turned into steam. causes an eX
nlosion. or series of explosions, lik,
: boiler burstinrs on a gigantic scale.
Every schoolboy knows that tn
: shane of the earth is an oblate sphcroi
that ,s IN say that if is tiattened a lii
h tle like an orange at the two poles. Tn
polar diameter of the earth is actual
r wenty-seyen miles less than its dian
$ eter at the equator. But it is as yet nc
T absolutely ascertained whether the fla
teninc is similar at both poles. Som
arctic explorers appear to be of tn
opinion that the iattening is greater a
the north than at the south pole.
Another rather startling fact is tina
the equator is not a perfect circle. |
e YOU could drop q plumb line from Ire
t land through to New Zealand 1t woul'
be somewhat longer than anothe
which cut the earth at right angles t
it. The difference has not yet been as
certained with absolute accuracy.
We are accustomed to talk OF Sc
: level as an i%nvariable quantity. 1t i
positively startling to find how yer,
u far from level the sea is; not. of course
merely from the passing influence o
tides and winds, but there are grea
III 1r~pc ~, tho Goa