The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-12-08
OLD MOTHER EARTH.
HARDLY ANY TWO SCIENTISTS AGReE
AS TO ITS AGE.
some Speculation About the Tiny
Atom In the BOundless Universe
Upon Which We Dwell-Theories
About the Interior of Our Globe,

Atom In the BOundless Universe
Upon Which We Dwell-TheOries
About the Interior of Our Globe.
Hardly any two scientists agree as to
the age of the earth-that is, as to the
length of time which has elapsed since
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,
it seems that at least 1,OOO,OOO,OOO
years have passed since the globe evolv-
ed in its present shape out of the whirl-
ing mass of incandescent matter which
it must once have been.
But Lord Kelvin. arguing from the
known rate of loss of heat, declared
that not more than 1OO.OOO,OOO years is
the limit of time which has passed by
since firm rocks appeared and life be-
gan upon the earth. More recently Pro-
lessor TAFT declared that tenth of
Lord Kelvin's estimate might be nearer
the truth. All biologists, however, de-
clare that the latter estimate is too
low.
We know with the utmost eXactitude
how heavy our little world is. If you
put down the figure 6 and follow it by
twenty one naughts, you have it within
a very few million tons. Roughly
speaking, this implies that the earth
is five and one-half times as heavy as
globe of water Of the same size.
But, in spite of this accurate knowl-
edge 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 continues regularly
toward the center, that part of the
globe must be at a heat so appalling
that Imagination is unable to grasp it,
When this fact of increase of tempera-
ture with depth first became ascer-
tanned biologists got the idea that we
were living upon 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 some years ago. when 90
600 people lost their lives. A tremor of
this kind could not pass unless the
earth had rigidity approaching that
49, ~I>c of
the attractions exercised upon us by
sun and moon have made it pretty GER
tain that our world is just about as
hard and solid as so much steel.
This does away with the liquid inte-
rior theory and makes it fairly certain
that the earth is solid all through,
with perhaps occasional accumulations
where for some reason or other the
pressure is not so great as it is in 9th
ers.
It 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 few miles
denly turned into steam, causes an eX-
plosion, or series of explosions. like
boiler burstings on gigantic scale.
Every schoolboy knows that the
shape Of the earth is an oblate spheroid
that is to say, that it is tlattened lit.
tie like an orange at the two poles. The
polar diameter Of the earth is actually
twenty-seven miles less than it's diam
eter at the equator But it is as yet not
absolutely ascertained whether the fiat,
tening is similar at both poles. Some
arctic explorers appear to be of the
opinion that the flattening is greater al
the north than at the south pole.
Another rather startling fact is that
the equator is not a perfect circle. II
land through to New Zealand it would
be somewhat longer than another
which cut the earth at right angles tC
it. The difference has not yet been as
certained with absolute accuracy.
We are accustomed to talk of sea
level as an invariable quantity. 1t is
positively startling to find how very
merely from the passing influence OF
tides and winds, but there are great
and permanent elevations in the sea
positive mountains, in fact. 1t is cal
culated that in the bay of Bengal the
water lies at a level exceeding that OF
the Indian ocean by fully 300 feet and
that of the Pacific ocean along the
coast of South America may be heapeC
up as much as 1000 feet higher thar
the water in the opposite Atlantic
These water mountains depend upo1
the attraction of great mountain mass
es, the bay of Bengal upon the Himala
vas and the south Pacific upon thu
American Andes.
The height of our highest mountain:
has been measured to within an incl
Or two, and we have accurate informa
ton on the subject of the great depths