Evening star., 1939-04-26
Earih's Hot Depths
Still Yield Lane,
Scientists Told
Academy Also Hears
2-Week Weather
Predictions Possible
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

TTeOiCtIOnS TOSSlDIe
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
The continents still are creeping
forth, piece by piece. from earth, 5
hot depths.
This picture Of constantly grow
ing land masses was presented 70
the National Academy Of Sciences,
meeting here, by Prof Bailey Willis
of Leland Stanford University. and
represented radical departure from
previous geological concepts.
Hitherto it has been supposed, DR.
Willis said. that the great land
masses Of the earth have been Of es-
sentially their present size and
shape from the beginning, about
2,0O0,000,000 years ago. They may
have floated around like light RATS
on the sea Of heavy basalt, bumped
into each other, and broken apart.
The assumption has been that
when the earth cooled from a boil
ing liquid ball some of the lighter
elements on the surface Of the seeth-
ing mixture frozen" in the form Of
masses of light granite. 1t is known
that the earth has a granite crust
about Is miles thick resting upon
heavier rock.
Granite Of Different Ages.
But recent geological explorations
have made clear, DR.. Willis said,
that this granite crust not only is
not OF the same thickness every
where. but that In some places it
does not exist at ALL and that diff
ferent parts of it differ in age by a
billion years or more. This has beer,
determined both by the rate of de-
generation of radioactive elements
in the granite and by the fossils
which 1t contains.
Thus, he explained. the only logi-
cal assumption is that these thin
granite plates have been thrust 10
from the interior of the globe from
time to time and frozen in their
present position. As more and more
OF them have emerged, they have
lmpinged on each other, sometimes
overlapping like the scales of a fish,
until the whole shell gives the i'm
preston Of being continuous. The
gaps between the plates have been
filled in by geological debris of one
sort or another, giving the earth q
relatively level surface.
The various granite upthrusts NAV
be geological ages apart. Presumably
none of them has taken place in the
time OF man. but this is a very brief
interval on the geological time scale
There is no reason to SUPPOSE. Dr.
Willis said, but that the process sti,,
Is going on and that in some far dis
tant time the continental masses
may present far different shape
than at present.
Uses Independent Data.
He bases his thesis on the reports
OF British, Russian, Chinese, Japa-
nese and American geologists who
have made soundings independently
over the surface of Asia. These
show, he said, that the earth's lare-
est continent has grown from a few
widely separated masses of granite
which probably were thrust up from
the earth's depths more than a bill
lion years ago. But between them
are other granite masses which
emerged not more than zoo, ,0O0, 900
years ago and some which apparent
~ came up within the last 100, 900. j..
700 years when the present forms of
life were being established on earth.
New proof that weather the world
over can be predicted two weeks in
advance was presented here today
by DR.. Charles G. Abbot. secretary
OF the Smithsonian Institution.
About twice month, DR.. Abbot
told the scientists, the total radia-
ton from the sun received at the
outer edge of the earth's atmosphere
increases or declines for two or three
successive days. These changes
seldom exceed l per cent and can
be measured only with very delicate
instruments.
Varies With Locality.
He presented data to show that
sucn changes produce character
istic weather changes for two weeks
or more. The precise pattern of
these changes varies with the To-
cality. Weather prediction by this
method would involve the laborious
compilation of charts for every place
for which the predictions were
made.
DR.. Abbot himself has prepared
such charts for Washington, St.
Louis, Helena, Mont, and Potsdam
Germany. They are correlated with
solar radiation changes reported
from the Smithsonian Institution
observatory at Montezuma, Chile.
For any particular place on the
earths surface. Dr. Abbot said, the
weather patterns are repeated over
and over again. The pattern itself
cannot be predicted, but must be de-
termined experimentally. For each
locality 1t differs from month to
month, so IL separate charts must
be prepared.
The effects everywhere, DR.. Abbot
said, are almost precisely opposite
when the solar radiation decreo ses