Evening star., 1933-07-29
BIOLOGISTS PICK
RUSSIA AS PLACE
OF NEXT MEETING
Date Not Set, but Sessions
Are Held Every Three
or Four Years.
SPENDIAROFF PRIZE
AWARDED T. B. NOLAN
U. S. Government Employe Gains
Recognition for Excellence
Among Younger Group.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

The next meeting OF the 1nterna-
tional Geological Congress will be in
Russia at date to be determined later,
it was unofficially announced today.
The recommendation of the council
Of the organization to this effect will
be voted On by the delegates this after
noon. Sessions usually are held every
three or four years. For several years
the Soviet republics have been centers
OF intensive geological activity on some
OF the most pressing problems Of the
day and Russian geologists have taken
prominent parts In the Washington
sessions this week,
The award of the Spendiarof prize,
given at each meeting of the Congress
for the most outstanding wcrk among
younger biologists, to Thomas B. Nolan
OF the Geological Survey was an
nounced. This prize was established
by the celebrated Russian geologist
Spendiarof before the World War. The
award formerly was accompanied by a
gold medal and sum of money but
this has been discontinued since the
Russian revolution.
Nolan's work has been largely in the
Tonapa silver district of Nevada, where
he has devised new methods of deter
mining the relationships of metal-bear-
ing ore to other rocks.
Told Of Mountain Origins.
The congress listened today to an
explanation of the origin of the Alps
and the Himalayas by DR.. Hellmut de
Terra Of Yale University, based on per-
sonal explorations in the great Asian
mountains. They are. he contended
somewhat like the wrinkles in the skin
of dried apple. The core of the earth
is cooling and shrinking and the skin
has to change its contour in con-
formity
1t ali started. DR.. De Terra said. back
in the days when the great Tethys Sea
separated two mighty continents
rentia on the north. The bottom of this
sea was composed Of heavy, unyielding
rock. Some great disturbance took
place so that there was tremendous
pressure against this resistant rock with
the result that it folded" into the two
great mountain chains.
1t was all due, he believes. to
shortening of the earth's radius by
contraction which resulted In shifting
the light blocks of "sial" the Light
material of which the earth's crust is
composed, over the less consolidated,
heavier and more or less vitreous sub
stance underneath.
Shrinking Still Continues.
The shrinkage process is still going
on. he believes. from observations dur
ing his own explorations Of the mighty
Himalayas. It has been progressing
slowly ever since the earth was de-
tached from the sun-a hot ball OF
gas through the near approach Of
a passing star about 100000 900
years ago.
What may prove to be conclusive
check on whether the continents actu-
ally are drifting is planned for this
Fall, it was announced today. Evidence
of the drift will be sought by measur-
ing carefully at various points on the
continents the longitude, or distance
east and west of the meridian which
passes through Greenwich. England.
measured eight years ago. If 1t has
changed appreciably since then it will
constitute evidence that the conti-
nents actually have moved.
The value Of the measurements will
depend on extreme exactneSs. The con-
tinental drift, according to some the
ories, may be as little as a quarter of
an inch a year and only about two
inches since 1926. Probably errors in
the measurements are almost as great as
this.
Continents Have Drifted.
That the continents have drifted is
considered a necessary hypothesis by
many geologists to explain their shapes
and the occurrence of closely related
plants and animals in widely separated
areas without any land bridges. The
fossils of Europe. for example, are close
to those of North America, while there
is a closer relation between the life
forms Of South America and those Of
Africa.
It is held Europe and Asia formed
the nucleus of an ancient great land
mass which broke up and began to
drift about three-quarters of million
years ago. North and South America
hoated westward. Australia drifted of
to the southwark Africa and Eurasia
remain in essentially their old positions
This is believed to be related in
some way both to the cooling of the
earth and the direction CT the earth's
rotation around the sun. Detection of
continental drift not only would go
far to clear up the past history Of the
globe, but would make possible a cor
rection in the data of surveyors which
might ho considerable oyer tho ro,,rea