Show CAMPFIRE CAMP FIRE CHATS B by R PAUL arat T J glimpses into geological pacts facts and problems in my last article I 1 spoke of the differ diff ent great geological systems and the differ differ ent forms of life the remnants from which serve today as a basis for their classi flea fica tion but before we take up in detail every successive age let us once more try to fully comprehend the agencies which were instrumental in laying down the oldest known core of this our earth As me mea tinned in a former art article iclet geologists believe that even the oldest precambrian pre cambrian rocks were originally naly sediments IR but ut a sediments are only possible where there Is prolonged water action the question arises how did the first ocean form during the countless ages when our globe was gradually cooling there came a time when the white hot crust subsided to a red hot hoi temperature at the same time the upper air grew continually freer from the terrific heat which had swept outward from the terrestrial surface at the temperature ot the air subsided there were precipitations of various substances which could maintain their gaseous condition no longer at length water which existed as an invisible gas began to condense when in the upper air the temperature passed below degrees the invisible steam became be came visible vapor A sheet of cloudy vapor filled the atmosphere growing thicker from age to age the light of the sun was not able to penetrate this cloudy pall darkness reigned everywhere interrupted only by the light of the decaying fires of the cooling crust finally the overburdened clouds discharged a storm of rain the friction of ascending vapors and descending rains developed electrical phenomena by the side of which our thunderstorms der storms would represent less than a drop in the bucket this first storm lasted for ages As soon as the rain fell on the glowing crust the water was volatilized arose as vapor to higher levels only to come down in a condensed form again and again until the powers of the fire were overcome and the waters gathered over the heated crust on all sides the columns of steam arose from a boiling ocean the atmos atmo wi with phere once so arid was n now ow soaked vapors the skies dripped with rains bit lo 10 longer the clouds at this time were no e of 0 the dense enough to prevent the passage in the beginning there was sunrays sun rays first night n s light the first day and the earth were born so far the self au luminous millous ea cast no shadow one hemisphere had bad night cirit j the while the other had sunshine for d O a 1 jf rf the w 9 ot of ruler time the sun became the arl and the moon of the night the first nr oceail j less beval storm was over a now en wrapped the world from a safe distance we see today the cloudy envelope of jupiter we observe the fiery rings of saturn both serving as samples of unformed worlds the rains which supplied the ocean had washed from the atmosphere certain acid gases sulphuric and carbonic and these were now in solution in the waters covering the earth these boiling waters acted on the crust which is composed principally of silicates of potash soda lime and magnesia and decomposing the silicates set free the different salts of the alkaline bases some of the resulting chlorides and sulphates were soluble and remained dissolved in the seawater but other of the resulting compounds were but little soluble and were precipitated to the bottom carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia were the principal I 1 two the one forming limestone and the latter mixed with the former dolomite it was a chemical precipitate not a sediment in the geological sense so far we have traced potash lime soda and magnesia to their destination and we have only to consider now what became of the remaining silica and aamina a which were set free by the above mentioned reaction if they mingled with the bases the different species of feldspar were formed and if they combined together silicate of argillite would have been formed but perhaps some of the outstanding silica and concluded not to combine together then the would simply remain free forming a bed of pure c ay corundum etc in the same way free silica would form beds of pure quartz now in a general way the oldest rocks accessible to investigation vesti gation are of a kind which would r result e according to the above reasoning feldspars Feld spars are everywhere in the bottom rocks there are beds of crystalline limestone and argillites argil lites there are also mica hornblende and which like the feld spars are essentially silicates of and other bases but here greatest of all puzzles are also conglomerates composed of rounded or angular fragments of older rocks knowledge stops here and mere speculation takes its place to make the existing gordian knot still more complicated there is no improbability in the supposition that plant life came then into existence how this life originated science is unable to explain we only know that beds of graphite are found in these older rocks and as the same mineral has been found in 1 later ater formations in connection with anthracite and graphite has been prepared from coal we may inay safely assume that graphite is only inet metamorphic coal |