Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14
SHAPE OF THE EARTH
Have We Been in Error ALI
These Years?
NOT A IS PHERoID
ON THE CONTRARY, 1T Is A FOUR
SIDED PYRAMID.
At Least So Claims French Astron-
omer Of Repute-Sets Forth
Arguments.
OF A IS P q ER0ID

| eFAtlS, .MdrCn q, IoVo.
"our earth is a four-sided pyramid : +"
| he said
".. And not an orange nattened at the
| poles!' exclaimed.
,'It Is not fiattened at the South pole. on
| the contrary. Also our earth is like a vast
| egg or cream pun. except that its liquid
interior, composed Of molten matter, is hot
| ter than 1900 degrees Centigrade. while Its
| thin crust is comparatively cold. Biologists
| now agree that this crust is not more than
| forty-three miles thick. What is that in
! comparison with the molten mass more
| than 1900 miles in diameter from crust to
| crust?'
cit sounds dangerous" I said.
"On the contrary. it is the thinness of the
crust that saves u.s." he answered. when
| 1t gets thicker there will be explosions in
| comparison with which our volcanoes are
nothing. The moon. which had it's end in
this way. shows craters forty, fifty and
sixty miles in diameter all over its surface"
The speaker was one of the most cele-
brated as well as one of the youngest of
| European astronomers-the Able TIL. Mo-
| reux of the observatory of Saint-Celestin
Dat Bourges. Two years ago he published
| his monumental volume on THE Solar
Problem" and showing, with the latest
| theory Of the sun and its system, the cause
| and nature of the sun spots and the init
| mate character of their influence on the
| climate and magnetism of the earth. Since
that time his studies of the sun spots have
| been in connection with the action of vol
| canoes on our earth. Just as the periodicity
| curves of the sun spots show their decisive
| effect on our earth's rainfall. temperature,
| advanced or late vegetation, the price of
| cereals, the return of migrating birds, polar
| auroras and magnetic deviatons, so they
| correspond with the periodicity curves of
| our earth's volcanic activity,
% s- Irry .-f~.I
much as to hear the earth-which had i'm
| agined to be sphere-caled four-sided
| pyramid. I said SO.
| Still Little Known.
"Yet the statement is neither new nor my
| own" replied the subtle able. '"The orig
inal discovery was made by Mr.. Lowthian
| Green In spite Of Its beautiful simplicity
| 1t is still little, known-scientific progress
| penetrates with difficulty to the masses
and the majority Of the people are about
| thirty years behind it. After the nebular
form. our forms our earth passed first into
a state Of incandeseence, then into that OF
a pasty molten matter covered with thick
| clouds. The planet Jupiter Is still in this
latter state. Under the action of the centri-
| fugal force developed by its rotation, the
| earth fiattened itself little at the equator
| but We must not forget that the intense cold
| OF space quickly formed over this pasty
mass crust that thickened century by
| century.
cat first this rigid crust formed a COM
pact WHOLE, continued the celebrated
| French astronomer, "but as the volume of
the central pasty mass decreased by con-
| traction, the crust-envelope soon became
/ too large for 1t. Hence cracks and folds.
the first inequalities Of the earth's sur
| face"
was thought that the mountains Of our
| earth had been thrown up by hazard; but
Mr.. Lowthian Green has shown that these
great lines of fracture were produced by
| the most beautiful rule. Every sphere
| submitted to lateral compression tends to
the. form of regular four-sded pyramid.
| Our earth is in this case. 1t is not pre-
cisely round. neither is 1t simply fattened
at the poles, as was once taught. Examine
| terrestrial globe The oceans, you will
| see, are laid out regularly on three sides.
| There Is. first, the deep ditch of the Pa
| cif1c; secondly, that of the Atlantic. and
| thirdly, that Of the Indian Ocean. These
enormous depressions, some of which at
| tain depths of five miles, correspond to the
| great lines Of fracture"
| What are they?"
Lines of Fracture.
1.-THE Rocky mountains and their con-
| tinuation in the Andes; the high plateaus
| of Greenland Iceland the Alps from the
north to the south of Europe, the noun
| tains of Albyssinia and Madagascar form
| another uninterrupted line, and, finally,
| the high submits of Thibet, the Malay
archipelago and their continuation in the
| Australian continent form the third
There are the three edges of the pyra-
mid l sadd "And can see that The
| three oceans and their adjoining fiat land
| surfaces form three of its sides; but where
| is the fourth side-the base-of the pyra-
mid? And where is its apex?
| THE fourth great plane is found at the
| north pole" he replied. Since the vey-
age of Nansen doubt Is no longer permit
| ted; profound depression exists there.
| And its corresponding summit is at the
south pole; where on well-marked conli-
nent explorers have discovered excessively
| high mountains
ut is true" said, that these great lines
| OF fracture seem to contain all the vol
canos, or nearly all" -
Certainly, because the resistance Is less
| great. The whole west of the two Amer
icas is bordered by a pronounced volcanic
| line. The second fracture gives us The
| VOLCANOES Of Iceland, the extinct VOLCANOES
Of Auvergne, the volcanic districts OF Italy,
| Sicily and Abyssinia And the third, l
| need not point out, gives the volcanoes OF
| Java, Japan, and so on united by the vol
| canoes of the Aleutian Islands to the frac-
ture lines of the Rocky mountains. rake
note that even the antarctic regions SUB.
init to thu law, witness the VOLCANOES. OF
| Erebus and Terror, always In eruption.
More than this. Mr.. Lowthian Green has
| shown that, by astronomical causes the
| earth mas uHderg0n6 q pWfstlnS, udVlhS EioE
| effect what geoipgists call the Mediter-
ranean depression very marked in Amer
| lea by the subsideuees around the isthmus
of Panama, the asditeh Of the Antilles and
further on by the Sahara, the Mediter-
ranean, the Gulf Oh Bengal and the Malay
| archipelago. An these regions are doubly
| volcanic being zsituated at almost right
| angled inters eethins of the depression and
These fess things salpunt for the distribu-
| ton in space AZ tM earth's volcanoes"
| said. II undeIstahd that you have also
| the explanatioH sot their distribution in
| time.'' -as,
Periodfsitk Of Eruption.
81 began by looking into the periodicity
| of volcanic action At the end OF my com
parison OF soIa aetivity and terrestrial
phenomena, such al temperature. rainfall.
vegetation. the freturn Of migrating birds.
the price OF grain, the appearance Of polar
auroras. and 50 FORTH" replied the Able
| Moreaux. ut Sss1ned to me certain that
| the eruptions regularly increased at the end
| OF long periods ef calm in the sun. In
| my book, THE Solar Problem I have
| shown how the sunspots. the gaseous erup-
tons called protuberances. the changing
1 forms Of the solar crown. ETC., all hold to-
/ o,,a offs Tof r1u "