The Interior of the Earth

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 May 1910, Page 4

The Interior of the Earth

XOTHIXG KXOWX ABOUT JT. "We really know only a more skin "I tho .surface of tho earth, not inoro tlinii thirty miles deep, whilst tliß globe is 8000 miles in diameter. All the oxygon is combined in the upper layers of the thin mist, exfjept c-luit smaller quan-tnty which floats tree in the atmosphere and is continually renewed by tho .-tenon of the green plants. is prdmbly no oxygen at all bek'v thirty miles, and it is difficult to gii(*.s what are tho elements wit'iin. I rfjhaiWy tho heaviest elements form a dense core near the centre. ft is in some respects astonishing, almost aLarming, that we are so completely devoid of any direct knowledge of the constituents of the vast mass of the ylobo beneath ns, and really know only tlio merest film. A skin or membrane one-twontiebli or an inch in thickness (the thickness of kid or brow n,paper!), spread over a .ball a little mom than 6110 foot in diinmoter, represents the proportion between the known crust of the earth thirty miles ,thick and the great gloibejtseif. We aro dependent on inference nml speculation for our notions as to the constitiition of all that is beneath the mere skin of thirty miles' thickness on the globe's surface! Even what is thrown up by the biggest volcanoes oes not come from below this ■epth, nor tell us what lies hidden there-!