Open AccessIII. On the straining of the Earth resulting from secular cooling
Author(s) -
Charles Davison
Publication year - 1894
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.814
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 2053-9126
pISSN - 0370-1662
DOI - 10.1098/rspl.1894.0025
Subject(s) - earth (classical element) , crust , geology , earth crust , volume (thermodynamics) , mineralogy , thermodynamics , materials science , geophysics , physics , mathematical physics
If the coefficient of dilatation (e ) and the conductivity (k ) are constant at every point within the earth, and if the temperature (V) was initially the same throughout, the depth of the surface of zero strain after 100 million years is 2.17 miles, the total volume of the crust folded and crushed above that surface is about 184,500 cubic miles, and the mean thickness of the crushed rock spread over the whole surface of the earth is 4.95 ft. (takinge = 0.57,k = 400, V = 7000° F .). The smallness of these figures has been claimed by some geologists as a new and strong argument against the contraction theory of mountain evolution.