Semi-weekly herald., 1909-02-22

Green. Despite Its beautiIul simpHc
ity. the wondrous thing is little known
among the vulgar--of whom was ] TIL
last Thursday. Scientific novelties
penetrate gently. In this matter we
have been thirty years behind the
times.
What is thirty years In comparison
with earth cycles? The Debular earth
passed, by way of incandescence, to
a pasty molten matter covered with
thick clouds. The planet Jupiter is
rather like that now. Under centri
fueaI force developed by rotation the
earth began flattering itself at the
equator. but the intense cold of space
soon formed crust over all that thick
ened century by century.
At first the crust was smooth and
compact whole. But as the interior
paste contracted, cooling, the crust
was left too large.
Hence cracks and folds, the first
inequalities OF surface. Also the first
shiftings we call earthquakes. Once
It was imagined that the mountains
were thrown up by hazard. Lowthian
Green has shown that the great lines
of fracture were produced by the most
beautiful rule.
Every sphere submitted to lateral
compression tends to form four-sided
pyramid Our earth did not escape it.
Examine a terrestrial globe. Are
not the oceans laid out regularly on
three sides? There is "a the deep
plane of the Pacific; (2) that of the
Atlantic; i3) that of the indian ocean.
These enormous flat depressions, some
of which attain five miles, correspond
10 the great lines of fracture which
frame or border them. Whichf Where?
Why. the mountain chains.
These are the Rocky mountains,
continued in the Andes, etc; the high
plateaus of Greenland, Iceland. the
Alps from north to south Europe; and
the mountains of Abyssinia and NADIA
gascar. Thirdly, the high submits of
Thibet. the Malay archipelago and the
Australian continent. etc.
Such are the three mountain-chain
edges of the earthly pyramid. The
fourth great plane is found at the
north pole. Since Nansen no doubt
Is permitted; profound depression
exists there. And its corresponding
summit is the south pole, where on
welldeflned continent explorers up TO
Charcot discover higher and excessive
ly higher mountains.
See how It all fits together. The
west of the two Americas is bordered
by a pronounced volcanic and earth
quake line. The second fracture gives
us the active volcanoes of Iceland,
the extinct" ones of Auvergne. the
volcanic district, the earthquake-shak.
en-, of Italy, Sicily and Abyssinia And
the third, of course, gives the earth
quake-volcanic lines of Japan and
Pava, continued in the Asiatic plateaus
tobserve the new volcanoes OF Man.
churia and Thibet!) and the volcanoes
a3 the Aleuuan islands, to the frac-
trfe lines of the Rockies again!
Even the antarctic regions submits
to the law Witness the volcanoes of
E,rebus and Terror. always In erup.
ton.
Moreover, Lowthian Green-pursued
and amplifed particularly by Able
AIoreux, famous chief of the Bourges
observatory in France-has shown
that by astronomical causes the earth
has undergone a twisting. resulting
in what biologists call the Mediter
ranean depression.
In America this twisting is very
marked in the subsidences around Pan
anna and the ditch of the Antilles
Further on 1t is continued by the Sa
hara, the Mediterranean, the Gulf OF
Bengal and the Malay archipelago. All
those regions are doubly volcanic and
quaking.
You should read Moreux's "Solai
Problem" Briefly. sun spots, protu
berances. changing forms of solar
crowns. etc, all hold together as caus
es and effects. The sun is gaseous
globe, far from being condensed; al
though the gases at its surface ought
TO be as thick as chilled molasses
Gases much more liberated. mixed
with meteoric matter, surround the
suns surface, as envelopes of chang
ing density.
Layers of greater density shoot out
from the suns surface every eleven
years and must-by the mechanical
theory of heat-accompllsh an ou;
rageous flaring up in the envelopes
which only we see and call the sun
| All physical phenomena are bui
transformations of the same mysteri
Gus energy. The incredible electric
currents" which overrun the sun, es
pecially violent at these periods oi
maximum. have their strong effects or
| earth
| illustrative side issue: In periods
OF solar activity. the electrical poten
tial' of our atmosphere undergoes