The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1914-05-08
NEW IDEA OF EARTH'S AGE
Radium Has Caused the Biologists to
Change Their Theories.
New York Press.

If such authority as HTOI. AIIHuA
Holmes of the Imperial College,
South Kensington, London, has any
weight at all with people, the dis
covery of radiur1 means that geo!o-
gists must change their calculations
materially as TO the age of the earth
if they wish to be taken seriously.
He SAYS it is a we'll known caftahtt m
He says it is we'll known fact that If
the proportion OF radiunl in the in:er-
ior of the earth is in any way equal
to the radium in The rocks at the
earth's surface the earth will not grow
colder, as he has been 'aught,
but it ought to be growing hotter.
Calculations, however, show that the
distribution of radium as it is found
would be more than enough % keep
the temperature OF the eart1 Sta
tionary. Thorium and radium also
supply 2rCso amount of heat and
must be tahea in accola:.
In order that the earth should be
neither growing hotter nor colder a:
a rate allowed by the radioactive
elements as they disintegrate it is
necessary, he says, to assume that the
earth's store of radium be concen
trated near the surface. The radio
active elements are found mos
abundantly in acid rocks, and their
more basic associates are less rich.
These acid rocks are charac, eristic Of
only the. eutermost zones of the crust,
and there are many reasons for be-
lieving that with depth the non-acid
rocks are predominant.
Earthquakes and similar terrestrial
events have proven facts from witch
the condition of the earth's interior
may be deduced with confidence.
First, there is the crust zone, which
has an approximate thickness of 80
miles. Then comes the stone zone,
something under 100 miles thick, and
finally; the cen raj iron core Of the
earth, with density eight times
grea .er than water M9teo.ites con-
tain radium, and Prors. S.rutt and
Holmes say that these meters con-
tain the proof that no radium is
found in the stone zone or inner core.
1t is supposed that the earth be-
gan, of course, as misty, nebulous
mass and that it has become the great
mass it is by he capture Of meters
and greater masses foa ing in space
during the ages. 1t is very unlikely
that the earth was ever, as whole,
in a molten condition. 1t is surmlsed
by several English savan.s that the
internal heat probably arose in a
great measure from the condensation
of the mass as it grew.
The temperature would slowly rise
until the fusion point of certain Of
the earth's constituents was reached.
Then the pockets and tongues thus
formed would tend to move away
from the center, and the less heavy,
stony substances would be squeezed
outward relatively 10 network of
the heavier, rigid metals.
Surrounding the me;alic core. a
thick zone Of sandy rocks would be
formed, and the radioactive materials
would be concentrated in the stone
layers. When the oceans and the atmos-
pheres were produced the sediment
rocks appeared for the first time, and
then came the eartns crust with the
rocks that contain most Of the radl-
um and other radioactive elements.
Before the advent of radium, geologists
did not recognize the difficulties pre-
sented by the peculiar makeup of the
earth's crust. Radium did not create
this difficulty, but it certainly empha-
sized it in the attention of scientists.
1t can hardly be said that radium
has given blank check on the bank
of time, for is discovery not only
destroys all the old measurements of
the earth's heat, but it necessitated a
new method of getting at it. Every
kind of radioactive mineral, as well
as radium, may be regarded as self
contained hour-glass, the radioactive
,emanations, such as helium, and re-
sidues such as lead, slowly accumu-
late at the expense of their ultimate
parent, uranium
The geologist, who five years ago
was embarrassed by the hreVity OF
the time allowed to him for the evo-