Evening star., 1937-12-28
|EARTH'S SURFACE.
TRACED TO spots
Melting Zones Far Down
in Crust Determine Struc-
ture, Geologist Says.

Local melting spots far down in the
earth's crust due to concentrated
radioactive disintegration may be re-
sponsible for the physical structure Of
the surface Of the globe.
These mating spots, or asthenoliths
Is they Are called geologicalsy, were
advanced today in 4 paper prepared
for presentation later by DR.. Bailey
Willis OF Stanford University before
the Geological Society Of America, now
IN session 1T the Washington Hotel. as
the Observation-Disclosures of such
features AZ the Rocky Mountains.
Heat from these zones causes great
blisters on the earths surface. Ac-
oording to DR.. John L. Rich Of the 80
ciety, who has presented q paper ex-
amining the surface manifestations of
asthenoliths, the crust covering the
tops Of the "blisters" tend to slide.
perhaps foot every loo, 900 years down
the nanks to pile up, folding up and
thrusting over itself to form great
mountain fronts.
As this process continues, the crest
OF the blister" Is pulled apart with
attendant faulting. or cracking up of
the earth's surface into irregular
blocks, and volcanic activity produced
! by laws rising along lines Of weakness.
Adjoining the upheaval q compare
BILE depression or "geosyncline" Is
formed by isostatic undertow-the ten
dency Of subcrustal material to migrate
toward the area underneath the "blis-
ter" Rising blocks Of the earth,s
crust. according to the Theory of Iso-
stacy. also tend to be compensated for
by sinking blocks elsewhere.
Floor of Continental Sea,
The geosycline, in most cases, be-
comes the floor OF q continental sea
into which great thicknesses of sed,-
ments are poured from the highlands
When asthenolithic activity 1T some
later time affects the depressed area,
the same process repeats itself.
The distribution of heat eenerators
or radioactive minerals, according to
DR.. Willis. Is assumed to have been
very irregular since some unknown in
ltial stage The proportion Of these
minerals has been. on the average. As
one part In one billion. However.
local richness has been sufficient to
| do the trick.
The result of 1000, ,00o. 900 years
OF asthenolithic activity is the earth,s
crust as at present, with more or less
exhausted. dormant or active areas
| continental sheets, oceanic bottoms
and marginal zones" DR.. Willis says
Collapse Of the top of a huge VOL
cano into the white heat of A x,b.
terranean lava chamber gave birth to
Crater Lake.
This origin for the beautiful BODY
OF water in Oregon, where trout NAV
be caught and held over steam vents
TO boil by merely shifting ones feet
was postulated today by DR.. Howell
Williams OF the Geological Society of
America before the fftieth annual
meeting Of the society.
The present, lake is five miles lonp
and 1000 feet deep.
Mount MaZama, the volcano whose
crest was swallowed up to cause tho
sreat depression is estimated by DR..
williams to have been $4,000 feet
nigh. The huge cone was built up by
eruptlons OF lava and pumice through
out period OF thousands of wears
ana It's slopes were at times mantled
with glaciers whose evidence still re-
mains on the rim OF the crater.
Finally there were Vulcanian ont
bursts OF pumice eliminating in tre-
mendous Pelean eruptions some 10000
years ago and the top Of the mountain
was swallowed up to leave the now
Water-filled caldera To minor cones
and the lake have grown up on the
| caloera floor since the catastrophe.
DR.. Williams said today violent
withdrawal Of lava from below caused
the collapse.
Ancient Bones Found.
Slowly and stealthily a band of
sWarthy savages crept up on a Texas
waterhole. Their keen eyes had seen
from afar the herd of mammoths
drinking there and their own hunger
and that of their families weighed
heavily upon their minds.
Reaching vantage points around the
little herd, they suddenly half crouched
and stone-headed spears lashed
through the air. With a frightened
squeal the herd wheeled and stam-
peded, but several fell to their knees
gasping in death throes.
Folsom man, the precursor of the
American Indian, had not erred in
his aim as is today testified by the
bones Of the dead beasts in the now
filled-in waterhole.
DR.. E. H. Sellards, director of the
Bureau Of Economic Geology, Univer-
sity of Texas, today described the
fossil assemblage testifying to this pre-
historic elephant hunt in a paper de-
livered before the society.
In 1884 spear was found at the
locality in conjunction with the skele.
ton of an elephant near Miami, Tex.
The skeleton and additional pachy.
derm bones and flint spears have now
been excavated.
One spear lay three inches from the
first cervical vertebra of an elephant,
and, with another, DR.. Sellards told
the meeting, undoubtedly had killed
the huge beasts. A knife also vas
found near the bones.
The bone layer ran entirely across
the sink, Sellards said, to III feet
below the surface. Conditions of oc-
currence show the elephants to range
from full grown to very young.
The hunters left no other record of
their presence besides their weapons.
but it is evident that many a Folsom
stomach was replete with mammoth
steak and marrow that night 10000
years ago.
Definite proof that minnesota