many times encompassed by the sea, covered by lakes, and become dry again.
And how many centuries upon centuries certainly, thousands of centuries perhaps has it required to accomplish each period of this? What a powerful force must have been required to displace and replace the ocean, to raise mountains! How many physical revolutions, violent commotions, the Earth has passed through before becoming what it has been through historic ages! And they try to make us believe that the formation of the Earth took less time than is necessary to propagate a plant!
13. The study of the geological beds attests, as has previously been stated, to successive
formations, which have gradually changed the form of the globe, and divided its history into many epochs. These epochs constitute that which is called geologic periods, the knowledge of which is necessary to establish a true Genesis. Geologists count six principal periods, which they have designated as follows: first the primary, second the transition, third the secondary, fourth the tertiary, fifth the deluge, sixth the post-deluge or present period. Rocks formed during the duration of each period are called thus: primitive, transition, secondary rocks, etc. One says that such and such rocks, such and such fossils, are found in rocks of such and such periods.
14. It is essential to remark that the number of these periods is not absolute, and that it
depends upon system of classification. One does not comprehend, in the six principal periods designated above, all which are marked by notable and general change in the state of the globe; but observation proves that many successive formations have been produced during the history of each. That is why they are divided into periods, characterized by the nature of the rocks, which bear twenty-six general and very characteristic formations, without counting those which are produced by modifications due to purely local causes.
P
RIMITIVES
TATE OF THEG
LOBE15. The depression of the poles and other conclusive facts are certain indications that the
Earth had been originally in a fluid or soft state. This state could have been caused by matter having been liquefied by fire or softened by water.
It is proverbially said: “There is no smoke without fire.” This true proverb is an application of the principle: “There is no effect without a cause.” For the same reason one can say: “There is no fire without a focus.” Now, by facts which pass under our eyes, there is not only smoke produced, but also very real fire which must have a focus. This fire coming from the interior of the Earth, and not from on high, the focus must be within; the fire being permanent, the focus must be equally so.
The heat which is augmented by measure as it penetrates the interior of the Earth, and which at a certain distance from the surface attains a very high temperature; the hot springs, so much warmer according to the depth from which they come. Fires and masses of heated and burning substances, which escape from volcanoes with vast upheavings, or by crevasses produced by earthquakes, can leave no doubt concerning the existence of an interior fire.
16. Experience demonstrates that the temperature has been raised one degree by every
thirty yards of depth: whence it follows that at a depth of three hundred yards the augmentation is ten degrees, at three thousand yards, one hundred degrees, a temperature of boiling water; at thirty thousands yards, seven to eight leagues (from twenty-one to twenty-four miles), one thousand degrees; at twenty-five leagues (seventy-five miles), more than thirty-three hundred degrees, a temperature at which no known material can resist fusion. From there to the center
Geological Outline of the Earth
Please cooperate with future projects by respecting the copyright.
This electronic version was prepared with the sole purpose of the dissemination of the Spiritist Doctrine.
To purchase the hard copy of this books or for more information please contact [email protected]
84
there is still a space of more than fourteen hundred leagues (forty-two hundred miles), may be twenty-eight hundred leagues (eighty-four hundred miles), in diameter, which must be occupied by molten substances.
Although this is only a conjecture judging cause by effect, it has all the elements of probability; and one arrives at this conclusion, that the Earth is still an incandescent mass covered with a solid crust of twenty-five or more leagues (seventy-five miles) in thickness, which is scarcely the one hundred and twentieth part of its diameter. Proportionally speaking, it must be much thinner than the thinnest rind of an orange. 34
For the rest, the thickness of the terrestrial crust is very variable in many places; for there are some countries, especially volcanic territories, where the heat and flexibility of the soil indicate that it is much thinner. The high temperature of hot springs is also an indication of close vicinity to the central fire.
17. It is then evident that the primitive state of the softness or fluidity of the Earth must
have been caused by the action of heat, not by water. The Earth was then originally an incandescent mass. In consequence of the caloric rays, it became liquefied. It has been gradually cooled, and the cooling process has naturally commenced on the surface, which has become hardened, whilst the interior has remained in a fluid state. One can thus compare the Earth to a block of coal coming red from the furnace, the surface cooling by contact with the air, although, if one breaks it, the interior is found to be yet burning.
18. At the epoch when the terrestrial globe was an incandescent mass, it contained not
one atom more or less than it does today. Only under the influence of this high temperature, the greater part of the substances composing it, and which we see under the form of liquids and solids, earth, stones, metals, and crystals, were found in a very different state. They have only been submitted to a transformation. In consequence of the cooling process and mixtures, the elements have formed new combinations. The air, considerably inflated, became extended to an immeasurable distance. All the water forcibly reduced to vapor was mingled with the air. All the substances susceptible of volatilization – such as metals, sulphur, carbon – were there found in a gaseous state. The state of the atmosphere was then in no way comparable with its present condition. The density of all these vapors gave it an opacity through which no ray of sunlight could penetrate. If a living being could have existed on Earth at this period, he would have had
34 Note of SAB: Earth's radius is about 6,371 km and the radius of the core is about 3,486 km (the inner core radius is about 1,217 km; a little more than two-thirds of the radius of the Moon). Although the interior of Earth is only a few tens of miles beneath our feet, it is more difficult to reach than the surface of Pluto or even a nearby star! The deepest mines in the world are only three to four kilometers deep. The deepest well ever drilled only penetrates 12 kilometers into the interior. Since it is 6371 kilometers to the center of Earth, comparatively speaking, we have not even been able to get through the skin of the peach because the high pressures and temperatures of the surrounding rock cause the metal of even the strongest drills to quickly weaken and deform. At depths of 100 kilometers, rock flows like butter, and any hole we could form would quickly close. Near the surface of Earth, both temperatures and pressures are low, so rock behaves like cold wax: they crack and crumble. As we delve into Earth's depths, temperatures and pressures rise quickly. At only a depth of 50 kilometers (about 30 miles), temperatures are already near 1000 degree F. (500 degree C) and pressures are near 200,000 psi (pounds per square inch). Estimates of the temperatures in the deep interior of Earth range from about 4000 deg. C to about 7000 deg. C, which is about as hot as the surface of the Sun. (The rock and iron at these temperatures remain as solids and liquids instead of gases because of the very high pressures in Earth's interior.) The mantle accounts for about 84% of Earth's volume but the core contains almost 70% of the planet's mass. Source:htpp://www.cotf.edu
Chapter VII