The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-18
Earth Swelling, Not Shrinking, and Only
100000 Years Old

/ have been due to external agencies,
principally earthquakes caused by the
/ leakage of the seas and seldom ex-
tending below fifteen or twenty miles.
EARTH EXPANDING
The earth is not now shrinking, nor
has it been at any time since the con-
solidation of its crust commenced, said
the astronomer. Far from contracting,
it may be in reality very slightly ex-
panding. This expansion is due to the
formation, nearly everywhere beneath
earth's crust, of pumice which is ele-
waited by the steam forming under the
oceans. Thus the level of the con-
tinents is raised, in spite of the erosion
of the surface rocks. The ocean level
is perhaps rising slightly, although
there is a continuous lowering of the
strand line.
The theory that the earth was origin
ally a tetrahedron was dismissed by
DR.. See as not even a plausible delu
sion. Even were our planet as stiff as
steel and given tetrahedral form,
the corners, he said, would be crushed
down and the figure rapidly rounded
I'D under its own attraction. A column
of the stiffest granite or steel would
}
out crushing or vaporizing at the base,
and a solid pyramid, such as would
form the corners of a tetrahedron,
could attain no vast height before it
| would begin to spread at the base and
| flow from it's own weight, even if form
ed of the hardest material There is
| thus a limit to the height at which
even mountains could stand, although
4oix
| ed by mountains on earth
MOON LEFT EARTH.
| The separation of the moon from the
earth caused our principal ocean basins
| to form 1t cannot be said at what
stage the moon parted company with
| its parent earth. nor how much larger
| in volume the earth then was than
| it is now; but the separation probably
| took place before the crust of the earth
| commenced to form. and it probably
originated under the disturbing action
/ of the solar tides. The detached mass
| seems to have come mainly from the
protuberances on the soft earth drawn
out by the suns attraction and lying
toward and from the sun. The Pacific.
Indian and Atlantic oceans probably
| represent the holes left by the dis
ruption. the first two named being evil
IDENTIFY the area from which the matter
| of the moon was mainly derived. The
/ inequalities remaining after certain
masses had again united with the
| earth probably gave the foundations
on which the continents have since
| been built. There was some modifica-
ton and remodeling also by the suns
| draw upon the molten or thinly en-
! crusted earth. e., by the solar tides.
| But all smaller inequalities occurring
since the earth's crust hardened-all
mountains, high plateaus and deep
| ocean troughs-have been produced
| mainly by earthquakes due to steam
from the leaking oceans and not to
any continuous shrinking of the earth.
ONLY 100000 YEARS OLD.
The earth is about 10,0o0.000 years
| old-by no means so old as many geo
lCgists have been inclined to believe,
| according to DR.. See. This he calu-
| lates by use of a formula, the exact
figures being 100000 years since the
crust of the earth consolidated, which
is supposed to have occurred very soon
| after the first beginnings of the
spheres forma ton. Lord Kelvin, af-
ter assuming that the greatest tenn
perature on the surface of the earth
in past ages was 1000 degrees Fahren-
| heit similarly calculated the age of tho
earth to be 1O1, 6z3, coo years. but DR..
| See assumes that this temperature on
| the surface never could have been
above 1000 degrees Fahrenheit Dl.
See further estimates that the Andes
might have been formed in something
like 100000 years, and the plateaus
west of the Rockies in not more than
! $1,000 900 years. The cooling of the
earth has nowhere extended below
| forty miles, or one-one-hundredth of
| the earth's radius, and has been con-
fined almost entirely to the crust, ac-
| cording to the astronomer.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.