Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-11-19
THE EEART.H'S INTERIOR.
Our Planets Core Is Liquid, Yet
 It's as Rigid as Steel.
UNDER ENORMOUS PRESSURE

UNDER ENORMOUS PRESSURE
 Neither Rock Nor Metal Could Remain
 There In the State In Which We See
 It on the Surface-The Lava That l Breaks Through the Earth's Crust.
 The idea that the interior of the globe
 is composed of flowing lava has long
 since been abandoned, but the picture
 that modern science offers of the in.
 side of the earth is hardly less ap-
 palling. All investigations unite to
 prove that the heat increases as we de-
 scend deeper in the terrestrial crust
 at such rate that forty or fifty miles
 down no substance with which we are
 acquainted could remain unmelted. And
 yet the same science tells us that the
 core of the globe is enormously more
 rigid than the hardest steel. This ap-
 parent contradiction is due to the tre-
 mendous pressure inside the earth. No
 rock and no metal can remain there in
 the state in which we see it on the sur
 face. It's molecules must lose the ad-
 herence characteristic of solid bodies
 In consequence of the heat, but still
 they are not free to flow like an ordi-
 nary liquid, because of the compression
 to which they are subjected.
 The phenomena of earthquakes have
 given wonderful information about the
 internal state of the globe. All ob-
 servations show that the shocks of earthquakes are confined to thin up- per shell. They originate at a depth of only few miles at the most. But the vibrations which they set going are felt all through the earth, often ex- tending to the antipodes. The great core, held rigid by the pressure, is ex- tremely elastic, and it responds to shock like a ball of steel or of glass. The density of the earth increases to- ward the center. It is only in the up- per part of the crust that local move ments can take place, causing shocks and changes of level at the surface. Deeper down everything is gripped and immovable, except, as already re- marked, that the molecules of the rocks and metals there are subject to vibra- tion like those of bell against which a blow is struck.
 But this is not all. Whenever local release from the pressure is brought about by changes near the surface the potentially liquid but effectually solid core at that point may suddenly be- come fluid and gush forth through volcanic throat or other vent. But such effects cannot extend to any great depth Nothing comes to us from the vast interior mass. That remains a perpetual mystery, far beyond the searching hand of science. Indirectly, however, we may learn much about it. Astronomical considerations throw great deal of light upon the subject. We see that through the planetary sys- tenn rotating globes are flattened at the poles. The same thing is true of the earth. Its equator bulges; it's polar regions are drawn inward. Mechan- ical laws assure us that the cause is to be found in the fact that the earth and the other planets have assumed shape under the influence of the cen trifugal force of their rotation. That force is necessarily greatest at the equator. Beginning as completed mol ten bodies, they have commenced to so- lidify at the surface after having as- stunned an ellifordal form due to their rotation.
 Another very significant fact Is that | the shape of the earth corresponds with that which globe rotating with it's velocity would have if composed of materials arranged to their density that is to say, growing denser toward | the center The heaviest materials | must be deep down in the globe; the lighter materials have remained at the surface. This again corresponds with the facts of observation. We know the total weight" and the average density of the earth. It weighs" six sextilllons of tons, and it's average density is five and half times that of water. But the substances composing the crust of the earth have an average density of twice that of water. It follows that the heaviest things in the earth, on the average, exist deep with n its exterior. For all that we can ell, its inner core may be wholly me allie. At the center there is probably m enormous aggregation of dense me allie substances.
 An indication that the inner parts of he earth consist largely if not mainly IT iron is to be found in the mag letism of the globe. The earth is a ;reat permanent magnet. If we could earn the facts 1t might turn out that ron is the most abundant substance n rhe solar system and perhaps in he whole universe. The majority of he meteorites that fall upon the earth onsist of solid iron Blow the earth Q pieces and in the resulting cloud f fragments the rocks that we are amiliar with would be almost imper- eptible. There would be a rain of ion and other metals descending upon be moon and upon any other attract lg body in the vicinity. This view of the interior of the lobe disposes of the notion. so pictur- squely developed in one of Jules 'erne's rOmances. of the existence of ast cavernous openings in the Inte- Or of the earth. Such told spaces. rough on no large scale. may exist the upper part of the crust. but not a r-raat Torfh The osrzr, c. nF