Evening star., 1942-10-01
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
The world must be an economic unit
after the war.
That is the conclusion of geologists
who have made intensive studies of the
distribution Of mineral resources, alleg-
edly one Of the potent causes of the
present war.
In sense the nations are equal. Some
seem richer than others because they
have been peopled with more energetic
races.
But even So they cannot live to them
selves alone, explained Prof. Kirtley r.
Mather of Harvard University in an
address before the American Philosophi-
cal Society.
Said Prof. Mather: There are extern
sive areas of e-Cambrian rock in
every continent and no large unit of
these rocks has SO far failed, when ade-
quately prospected, to be the source of
essential minerals. The Canadian shield
surrounding Hudson Bay in North
America is matched by the Scandinavian
shield OF Northwestern Europe and the
Angara shield of North-Central Siberia
In Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere
the Brazilian shield is matched bv the
extensive bodies of pre- Cambrian rock in
South and Central Africa and the base
ment complex of Australia.
The second group of rocks in this
very loose classification includes the sedi-
mentary formations of Cambrian and
post-Cambrian age. These may be fiat
lying beds beneath the plains and in the
plateaus or they may be wrinkled into
mountains like the Appalachians. It is
from these that the worlds resources of
coal and petroleum are secured, as we'll
as much of the potash and magnesium
and some of the iron Here. too, it should
be noted, every continent has its share.
The widespread basin of the Mississippi
Valley in North America is matched by
the extensive area of sedimentary rocks
IN Central Europe between the Alps and
the Scandinavian Highlands. The vast
loWland of the Amazon in South America
hnds its structural counterpart in the
interior basin of Australia and the broad
plains of North Central Asia.
The third broad type of geologic
structure is that resulting from and
associated with volcanic activity. Here
the geologist has in mind not only the
outpoured lavas and erupted cinders
ash and bombs of volcanic cones and
plateaus. He thinks also of the intruded
masses OF 1gneous rock. 1t is in asso-
clatlon with such rocks that some of,
the worlds most important preserves of
precious metals, of "copper" lead and zinc.
and OF such metals as tungsten, vana-
dium, molybdenum and manganese, es-
sential in the production of modern steel
alloys, are found. Nature plays no fav-
orites so far as continents are concerned.
The volcanic terrains of North America S
western mountains have their equivalent
in the Andes Of South America, many
mountain systems in Eastern and
Southern Asia, the plateaus and cones
of Central Africa.
THE fact is that every continent dis
plays almost the entire gamut of pos
sble geological structures and NAV be
expected to retain extensive deposits
of almost every kind of mineral re-
source useful today or likely to be USE
ful in the future as raw materials for
industry. The United States alone thus
far has produced more than two thirds
OF the worlds entire production of Pc
troleum. This is because Americans have
been more successful than any other
people in finding and using this type
of fuel. There Is no chance that
century ago two-thirds of the worlds
petroleum was concentrated beneath the
surface of the United States. With the
exception of Australia. every continent
probably contains petroleum reserves
proportional to the entire total of the
worlds supply, as the area of each con-
of the earth.
Similarly, to date continental Europe
the United States, Great Britain and
Russia have produced over 80 per cent
of the worlds STEEL This means that
the inhabitants of these regions have
been most ingenious and efficient in dis
covering and utilizing the iron ore de-
posits they possessed. The iron ores
OF Australia, Asia, Africa and South
America for the most part await future
development.
"Outstanding among the exceptions Is
tin. Nature has played a strange trick in
making tin ores scarce in the highly
industrialized regions where the tin can
is an essential item. There are prac-
tically none in all North America. The
puny deposits of the metal in all Europe
can meet only per cent Of the needs
OF Europeans. Much the same can be
said about nickel and radium. These
are found in only few rare localities
and in only two or three of the six
continents
But the distribution of the resources
OF the continents leads unerringly to the
conclusion that mans political, social
and economic organization must be on
planetary rather than a continental
basis. Each continent has SUFFICIENT
stores to place 1t on an equality with
every other continent. From the geo.
logical point of view there is no basis
for rating any continent as inferior to
any other.
But no continent can provide suf-
f1cient amounts of every ingredient Of
modern civilization"