The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-23

The earth has been regarded as
spinning steadily round certain fixed
axis, so that the poles remained in ex-
actly the same spots. says the ST.
Louis Globe-D Democrat. Quite recent
" has come the discovery that the
north pole executes a sort OF compli-
Gated waltz, always moving. but new
er straying more than thirty feet from
its mean position. 1t is Prof. H. H.
Turner. F. r. s.. who suggests the al
ternating accommodations of snow and
ice as the possible cause of this phe-
nomenon, and it is said the British
Royal Astronomical Society is about
to establish a number of stations in
high latitude with the object of test
ing this phenomenon of the waltzing
poles.
Hardly any two scientists agree as
to the age of the earth-that is, as to
the length Of time which has elapsed
since the earths crust became solid.
Considering the very slow rate at
which rocks are deposited by water,
and the immense thickness of the beds
Of these "straified" rocks-as they are
called-it seems that at least 1000, 000-
900 years have passed since the globe
evolved in its present shape out of the
whirling mass of incandescent matter
which it must once have been.
But Lord Kelvin, arguing from the
known rate Of loss of heat. declares
that not more than 100000. 900 years is
the limit of time which has passed by
since firm rocks appeared and life be-
gan upon the earth. More recently.
Prof TAFT has shown reason to believe
that tenth Of Lord Kelvin's estimate
may be nearer the truth. All geolo-
gists, however declare that the latter
estimate is too low.
We know with the utmost exactitude
how heavy our little world is. II you
put down the figure 6. and follow 1t by
twenty-one noughts. you have ii with
in a very few million tons. Roughly
speaking, this implies that the earth
is Ave and a half times as heavy as
a globe Of water of the same size.
But, in spite of this accurate know
ledge of the earth's weight, we have no
real idea of what is the condition Of
things inside our planet. Thousands
of experiments made in all parts of
the world show that the temperature
rises on an average about
degree for every sixty feet below the
surface. If this rate of increase con-
tinues regularly toward the center, that
part of the globe must be at a heat
so appalling that Imagination is I'M
able to grasp ii. When this fact of
increase of temperature with depth
first became aseertained, biologists got
the Idea that we we're living upon a
thin crust of firm rock which coated
furious furnace. of which volcanoes
were the escape pipes.
Now we know better than that We
have found among other things, that
an earthquake in Japan is able to reg
lister itself in England. This actually
happened in the case of the disaster in
North Japan four or five years ago,
when 10000 people lost their lives. A
tremor of this kind could not pass un-
less the earth had a rigidity approach
ing that of steel, and observations of
tides, and the attractions exercised
upon us by sun and moon, have made
IL pretty certain that our world is Just
about as hard and solid as so much
steel.
This does away with the LIQUID in
terror theory and makes 1t fairly GER
tain that the earth is solid all through,
with perhaps occasional Accommodations
OF fiuid rock here and there in parts
where, for some reason or other, the
pressure is not as great as it is in
others.
II also upsets the old theory of vol
canoes. and the modern idea with re-
gard 70 these mountains OF death and
destruction IL that water from the sur.
face finds its way through crack down
into the heated rock masses a few miles
below the surface, and these. being
suddenly turned into steam, causes an
explosion, or series OF explosions. like
Doder-pnFstings on a gigantic scale.