V.—“Radio-activity and the Earth’s Thermal History”: A Criticism

In the very interesting paper by Mr. Arthur Holmes on “Rradio-activity and the Earth's Thermal History”, in the Geological Magazine for February and March, it is assumed that in Archæan times there was “a widespread molten condition at no very great depth” below the earth's surface, and in the final conclusions the statement is made that “geological and other evidence points favourably to the traditional view that the earth's crust was initially in a molten state”. The results of recent work on the Archæan of Canada do not bear out this traditional view of the conditions of the earth's earliest known geological period, and it may not be amiss to suggest some points that decidedly conflict with it.

Download Full-text

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the TermAnthropocene

The Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry ◽

10.1017/pli.2014.15 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 257-264 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Timothy Morton

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Royal Society ◽

Earth’S Crust ◽

Steam Engine ◽

Radioactive Materials ◽

Earth Systems ◽

Huge Data ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Great Acceleration ◽

Geological Period

Not a day goes by in the 2010s without some humanities scholars becoming quite exercised about the termAnthropocene. In case we need reminding,Anthropocenenames the geological period starting in the later eighteenth century when, after the invention of the steam engine, humans began to deposit layers of carbon in Earth’s crust. Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer’s term has been current since 2000.1In 1945, there occurred “The Great Acceleration,” a huge data spike in the graph of human involvement in Earth systems. (The title’s Kubrick joke stems from the crustal deposition of radioactive materials since 1945.) Like Marx, Crutzen sees the steam engine as iconic. As this is written, geologists such as Jan Zalasiewicz are convincing the Royal Society of Geologists to make the term official.

Download Full-text

VIII.—Granite

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800196244 ◽

1892 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 561-564

Author(s):

Thomas R. Struthers

Keyword(s):

Earth’S Crust ◽

Molten State ◽

The World ◽

Great Pressure ◽

Earth's Crust

The commonly accepted theory of the origin of granite is that, in view of indications that it had been subjected to great pressure, it was formed deep in the earth's crust in a molten state, and, after consolidating, thrust up through it, or exposed at the surface by denudation. This theory is not altogether satisfactory, being equivalent to an assertion that a stately building was first constructed and its foundation laid afterwards. Like some other unsatisfactory theories, it has been so often reiterated that it is tacitly assented to as authoritative, on the principle, we suppose, that what everybody says must be true. There are existing conditions analogous to those under which the trappean rocks were formed, as illustrated by modern submarine and subaërial erupted rocks; but the conditions under which primitive granite originated are not now represented in any part of the world.

Download Full-text

VII.—A Reply to Sir H. Howorth's Paper on “Recent Changes of Level.”

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s001675680014395x ◽

1894 ◽

Vol 1 (11) ◽

pp. 502-505

Author(s):

Mark Stirrup

Keyword(s):

Earth’S Crust ◽

Relative Level ◽

Mountain Ranges ◽

Sequence Of Events ◽

The Earth ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Geological Magazine

In a paper published in the Geological Magazine, September, 1894, Sir Henry Howorth expatiates on recent changes of the relative level of land and sea in support of his views on the Mammoth age and his diluvial catastrophe,inwhich there seems to me some very extraordinary confusion in the matter of geological chronology and sequence of events. The first paragraph reads as follows:—“In some recent papers published in the Geological Magazine, I have endeavoured to show that at the close of the Mammoth age there was a very considerable dislocation of the Earth's crust, and that a consequence of it was the upheaval of Some of the highest masses of land on the earth, including the massive mountains of Asia and the American Cordillera. I now propose to show that (as is a priori probable) there was a concurrent collapse or sinking of the ground over large areas, which, as in the corresponding upheaval, was very rapid, if not sudden” (the italics are mine). The suggested relationship of these various events and their alleged catastrophic character, induces me to again enter this ever-expanding field of controversy.In support of his thesis Sir Henry first refers to the subsidences which resulted in the separation of England from the Continent, and consequent extinction of the Mammoth. Assuming that the course of things was as stated, when it is further suggested that this event was contemporaneous with great dislocation of the Earth's crust, resultinginstupendous upheavals of mountain ranges in Asia and America, he attempts more than can well be proved.

Download Full-text

VIII. Note on Mr. Davison’s paper on the straining of the Earth's crust in cooling

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. (A.) ◽

10.1098/rsta.1887.0008 ◽

1887 ◽

Vol 178 ◽

pp. 242-249 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Keyword(s):

Maximum Rate ◽

Earth’S Crust ◽

Rubber Membrane ◽

The Earth ◽

Interesting Paper ◽

Series Of Experiments ◽

Rate Of Cooling ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Rapid Contraction

Mr. Davison’s interesting paper was, he says, suggested by a letter of mine published in ‘Nature’ on February 6, 1879. In that letter it is pointed out that the stratum of the Earth where the rate of cooling is most rapid lies some miles below the Earth’s surface. Commenting on this, I wrote :— “The Rev. O. Fisher very justly remarks that the more rapid contraction of the internal than the external strata would cause a wrinkling of the surface, although he does not admit that this can be the sole cause of geological distortion. The fact that the region of maximum rate of cooling is so near to the surface recalls the interesting series of experiments recently made by M. Favre (‘Nature,’ vol. 19, p. 108), where all the phenomena of geological contortion were reproduced in a layer of clay placed on a stretched india-rubber membrane, which was afterwards allowed to contract. Does it not seem possible that Mr. Fisher may have under-estimated the contractibility of rock in cooling, and that this is the sole cause of geological contortion?”

Download Full-text

IV.—The Most Recent Changes of Level and their Teaching. The Rapid Collapse of Some Districts at the Close of the Mammoth Age

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800143614 ◽

1894 ◽

Vol 1 (9) ◽

pp. 405-413 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Henry H. Howorth

Keyword(s):

Earth’S Crust ◽

The Earth ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Geological Magazine

In some recent papers published in the geological magazine, I have endeavoured to show that at the close of the Mammoth age there was a very considerable dislocation of the earth's crust, and that a consequence of it was the upheaval of some of the highest masses of land on the earth, including the massive mountains of Asia and the American Cordillera. I now propose to show that (as is à priori probable) there was a concurrent collapse or sinking of the ground over large areas, which, as in the corresponding upheaval, was very rapid, if not sudden.

Download Full-text

VII.—The Effect of Sedimentation on the Temperature of the Earth's Crust

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800188818 ◽

1891 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 272-273

Author(s):

T. Mellard Reade

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Principle ◽

Earth’S Crust ◽

Expansion Theory ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Definition Of ◽

Geological Magazine

My letter in the March Number of the Geological Magazine, asking for a description of the “Herschel-Babbage” theory of Mountain formation, appears to have called forth Mr. Davison's “Note on the Expansion Theory of Mountain Evolution,” in which he favours us with his definition of the “fundamental principle of the theory of terrestrial evolution which has sometimes been called the ‘expansion theory.’”

Download Full-text

IV.—The Liquefaction of Rocks

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800209230 ◽

1870 ◽

Vol 7 (68) ◽

pp. 60-61

Author(s):

T. Sterry Hunt

Keyword(s):

Solid State ◽

Earth’S Crust ◽

Cambridge Philosophical Society ◽

Classic Work ◽

Scientific Opinion ◽

Great Pressure ◽

Liquid Condition ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Geological Magazine

The number of Scientific Opinion for October 27 (page 457), contains a note by the Rev, Osmond Fisher, calling attention to a suggestion, with regard to the liquefaction of deeply buried rocks, made by him in a paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society in April, 1868, and since published in the Transactions of that Society. In a notice of this paper by him, in the Geological magazine for November, 1868, Mr. Fisher insists that deeply buried and intensely heated portions of rock, which, in accordance with the conclusions of Mr. Hopkins, are kept in a solid state by great pressure, may, by a diminution of pressure consequent upon movements of the earth's crust, assume a liquid condition, and thus give rise to lavas. This suggestion is however claimed by Mr. Scrope, in a communication to the same Magazine for December, 1868, as his own, and as having been put forward by him in both editions of his now classic work on Volcanos. This statement of Mr. Scrope was questioned by Mr. Fisher in the Geological magazine for January, 1869, and Mr. Scrope does not appear to have replied. In a paper in the same magazine for June, 1869, I have referred to this view as belonging to Mr. Scrope, and as also advocated by Mr. Fisher, who has availed himself of the republication of my paper in Scientific Opinion for October 20, to re-assert his claim to be the originator of this view, and to demand either of Mr. Scrope or myself some justification of our assertions.

Download Full-text

II.—Elevation and Subsidence: A Suggestion

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800181920 ◽

1888 ◽

Vol 5 (7) ◽

pp. 291-297

Author(s):

C. Lloyd Morgan

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Lateral Pressure ◽

Earth’S Crust ◽

Present Purpose ◽

Loading And Unloading ◽

Earth's Crust ◽

Geological Magazine

It is unnecessary for me to remind the readers of the Geological Magazine of the evidence for elevation and subsidence. For my present purpose it is sufficient to remind them that suoh elevation and subsidence has been attributed (1) to lateral pressure giving rise to long geo-anticlines and geo-synclines; (2) to expansion and contraction of the underlayers resulting from a rise or a fall of temperature; and (3) to the loading and unloading of the areas of the earth's crust affected. Apparent elevation and subsidence, which we may here neglect, may be due to a rise or fall of the sea-level such as is dealt with by Prof. Hull in a recent communication to this Magazine.

Download Full-text