Arizona state miner., 1925-11-14
REGENERATION OF
METALS GOING ON
IN EARTH'S INTERIOR


Never until Old Mother Earth is
dead and cold, like the moon, will
the natural resources upon which
civilization is built become exhausted,
according to William Bowie of the
United States Coast e GeOdetic Sur
Vey.
Down in the heart of the earth
there lies a gigantic laboratory year
in and year out manufacturing coal,
oil, gas, gold, iron and the countless
other resources that furnish the
power which makes the world go
around.
Government scientists do not know
whether regeneration of minerals is
as fast as it's removal from the earth,
however Only the countless genera
tions to come will prove this point,
but il is the opinion of the scientists
that newer and more scientific pro-
cesSes of employment of the natural
resources will extend their use in
sufficient quantities during the few
more billion years that they will be
needed.
Sources of raw materials will not
be found in the same geographical
locations in geological ages to come.
Bowie pointed out. Coal, for in
stance, instead of being mined in
West Virginia, may appear on new
continent that is expected to arise
out Of either the Atlantic or the Pa
cific ocean.
Asphalt may be found in the Can
adian northwest instead of in the
Andes of South America. The min
eral resources of the Ruhr exhaust
ed, these iron deposits may reappear
in the heart of China.
Bowie said that new mineral de-
posits are constantly forming on GER
tain parts of the earth Mountain
ranges are continually wearing away
by the action of glaciers and vast
quantities of falling rain, the sedi-
ment being carried to the mouths of
the big rivers.
The area covered by the United
States is wearing away about foot
every 10000 years, the Geodetic Sur
vey estimates. The Appalachian
mountains, among the old ranges of
the world, worn smooth by the ages
of weather action, finally VIII dis.
appear, as did their predecessors. the
Devonian mountains, now far below
sea level in the Atlantic.
1t is expected that in ages to come
the territory where now lies the Uni
ted States may be vast ocean, and
that other areas will be replaced by
water, the population gradually NOV
ing on to new continents now in the
process of formation where the seas
are washing.
The Atlantic coast line, it was point
ed out, is gradually wearing away
from the force of the sea. Other
oceans throughout the world are eat
ing at the land areas in the natural
process of shifting of the earth to
water and sea to land.
Once the Mississippi valley was
vast mountain range, surrounded by
fertile, animal-inhab abited, plains and
forests, where now exist the Rockies
and the Appalachian ranges, A bill
lion years or more perhaps, has been
required to bring this typographical
change-another billion will pass be-
fore the earth goes back to the be-
ginning and starts all over again.
Earthquakes were described as an
incident, proof of these monumental
changes in the configuration of Mo-
ther Earth-the shocks, the birth ag-
onies of the creation OF new cOnti-
nents, mountains and new deposits Of
minerals Of vast value.
"The earth is a solid globe, 5000
miles in diameter" Bowie said, up
setting the old-time theory of the in
ternal fires.
"It has no liquid interior, with vol
canoes as chimneys. It is subjected
to great strains as a result of the
erosion of materials from the land
and their Diling up at the mouths of
the rivers"