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5010 - Our Earth PDF
5010 - Our Earth PDF
HOW
AND
WHV
CC/onjdtMiBoo&cft
NEW! A collector's binder to hold
T R A N S W O R L D P U B L I S H E R S • LONDON
I
Introduction
Earth, at this writing, is still the home of all known people. And though
it is fun to speculate about life on other planets in our solar system and in
other star systems, most of us will continue to live on earth. So it makes good
sense to learn as much about our home planet as we can.
This How and Why Wonder Book is a good guide to learning more
about the earth. It deals with a variety of topics and answers many questions.
How was the earth formed? What is inside the earth? What causes volcanoes?
What do fossils tell us? How are mountains and seas formed? Indeed, the
book is really geology, the study of the earth, made easy.
A fascinating aspect about the study of the earth is that we can see
today the same processes that have been going on for millions and millions
of years in the past. Reading the book gives one a feeling of living with the
history of the earth and learning about it at the same time.
Parents, teachers and children alike will profit from reading the book.
It is surely an essential addition to the growing How and Why Wonder Book
library of every young scientist.
Paul E. Blackwood
m
Beginning of the Earth
Scientists believe that about a hundred turned into large fiery balls of gas and
thousand million years molten liquid. Then they began to cool
How was
ago the earth, sun, and all and condense and take on solid form.
the earth
formed?" p l a n e t s °f the solar And at last, some four or five thousand
system were nothing but million years ago, they became Earth,
a cloud of cold dust particles swirling Mars, Venus and the other planets.
through empty space.
Gradually, these particles were at- Essentially, the earth is constructed
tracted to each other and came together s o m e t h i n g like a
What is
to form a huge, spinning disc. As it baseball. If you were
the earth like
spun, the disc separated into rings, and inside?
to cut a baseball in
the furious motion made the particles two, you would see
white-hot. that it has a core of solid rubber.
The centre of the disc became the Wrapped around this inner core are a
sun, and the particles in the outer rings great many layers of heavy string. This
4
same way that the string wrapping of
the ball is solid. Under pressure it will
move slightly and change its shape.
The mantle extends to a depth of 1,800
miles.
Enclosed by the mantle is the earth's
core. Unlike the centre of a baseball,
the centre of the earth is made up of
two parts: an outer core and an inner
»
A s the illustrations indicate, the construction of the
earth may be compared to that of a baseball. The
earth's covering is called the crust. Under it is the
string binding is solid, yet it is not as mantle. Within that is the core (centre of the earth).
5
core. Both are composed of metal — Thousands of earthquakes occur
mostly iron, with some nickel — but every year in many parts of the world.
the outer core is liquid and the inner Most of them are too slight to cause
core is solid. At the very centre of the damage, but all of them send out shock
core, the temperature is about 8,000 waves that penetrate all through the
degrees — not much less than the tem- earth, even the deepest parts.
perature on the surface of the sun. These earthquake waves are of two
The total distance from the earth's basic kinds: P (primary) waves, and S
surface to its centre averages approxi- (secondary) waves. P waves travel
mately 3,960 miles. faster than S waves. P waves go
through liquids, but S waves can't. The
No scientific instrument has ever pene- speed of both P and S waves vary ac-
trated more than two cording to the depth of the earth they
How can we Qr thre£ mile§ intQ
have penetrated. Both behave differ-
... . . the earth, How, then, ently when passing through different
inside of the
earth is like? are w e able t0 tel1 kinds of rocks.
what the inside of the When these waves come back to the
earth is like? The answer is: by the surface, they are recorded on a delicate
action of earthquakes. instrument called a seismograph
By studying the speed arid behaviour of earthquake waves, scientists can tell what the inside of the earth is like.
6
COSMIC COSMIC RAY
RAY DERSCTED BY
MAGNETIC FIEtD
magneti
POLE c
.-SHI
U PAGA
NO
lETN
IOFIEIINES
IKON w t i i o s HNE
M C ID Of EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD
These diagrams show the magnetic field of a bar magnet (left) and the magnetic field of the earth (right). Note
that the North and Sooth Magnetic Poles are not in the same positions as the geographic North and South Poles.
7
result of electric currents, and all elec-
tric currents are surrounded by mag-
netic fields.
10
of the ocean. We know that this hap- Swift-flowing streams and slow-moving
pened because the fossil remains of glaciers began tearing the mountains
sea animals have been found in rocks away. (This process of wearing away
on the topmost peaks. — usually, wearing away land by the
From these facts, we conclude that action of moving water — is called
the mountains were formed from the erosion.) Landslides moved material
rocks of ancient sea floors — and that from higher places to lower ones. As
powerful forces from within the earth soon as the mountains rose above the
broke and folded and raised these rocks sea, erosion began to destroy them.
into their present positions. Geologists believe that the surface
When the mountain ranges rose of the earth is constantly changing in
slowly out of the sea in this way, other this way — that the earth's crust is in
forces began at once to go to work. constant motion, like the waves on the
surface of a sea. But instead of rising At certain places under the crust,
up and levelling off again in a split- magma collects in reservoirs or pools.
second, as sea waves do, the movement As this magma wells up out of the in-
of the "waves" of the earth's surface is sides of the earth, it pushes gases ahead
measured in terms of hundreds of mil- of it. As the gases become more and
lions of years. more tightly compressed, they exert a
tremendous pressure against the under-
The solid rock layers which form the side of the crust. If this occurs at a
earth's crust are place where the crust is weak, or where
What causes ., . ,
t h i c k e r in s o m e an ancient earthquake has created a
volcanoes?
places than m others, break in the rock, the mixture of gas
and directly underneath them, the and magma breaks through the crack
earth's internal temperature is hot and erupts on the surface in the form
enough to melt rock. This molten rock of lava.
is known as magma (MAG-ma). As the lava gushes out through the
crack in the earth, it cools and solidi-
Eruption of a volcano: Mount Popocatepetl in Mexico. fies and, in time, forms a cone around
the opening that grows higher and
higher. In the end it becomes a vol-
canic mountain.
Sometimes a volcano keeps erupting
and throwing out great clouds of smoke
•
and ashes and streams of lava for many
years at a time. Then, when enough of
the internal gases have been released
to ease the pressure from far under-
ground, the eruption stops. The lava
inside the cone then cools and plugs up stone geysers are the most numerous
the crack in the crust. Often, many and most spectacular. Yellowstone's
years later, the pressure builds up most famous geyser, "Old Faithful,"
again, blows out the plug of solid lava, erupts at fairly regular intervals of
and the volcano erupts once more. about an hour.
Geysers might be described as small You can make your own geyser by put-
distant cousins of vol- ting a funnel mouth-
Why does a canoes> for they tOQ How can you
down in a saucepan.
geyser throw make your
out steam?
are created by the own geyser?
Fill the pan with
earth's internal heat. water until only the
Water from the surface penetrates neck sticks out. Place a spoon or some
deep down into long vertical cracks in other small object under one lip of the
the underlying rock which act as nat- funnel so that the water can get under
ural "water pipes." When this water it. Now put the pan on a fire. As the
sinks deep enough, the heat of the
earth causes it to boil. Then the whole Eruption of a geyser: " O l d Faithful" in Yellowstone.
the earth was surrounded by a heavy terials contain nearly all the minerals
blanket of rain clouds that was many that are found in the earth, including
miles in thickness — endlessly con- vast quantities of salt.
densing, falling as rain, and then being The heat of the sun evaporates, or
boiled back up into the sky again. dries up, some of the water on the sea's
Then, slowly, the earth's crust hard- surface and sends it back into the air
ened and cooled. And at last the surface as water vapour. There it condenses into
rocks became so cool that their heat clouds and falls back to earth as rain
would no longer boil water. And the or snow.
rain that had been collecting for all But in this process of evaporation,
these millions of years up in the thick the minerals are left behind in the
blanket of clouds began to fall in a oceans. Some of them, like iron and
never-ending torrent. calcium, are absorbed by the sea's ani-
For hundreds, perhaps thousands of mals and plants. But the salt is not used
years, the rains came pouring down in by either the animals or plants and so
a solid cloudburst. They levelled off it continues to collect in the sea in
mountain ranges and cut great valleys ever-increasing quantities.
in the earth. And when at last the del-
uge had slowed and stopped, the lowest Anyone who has been to the seashore
levels of the earth's wrinkled and has seen the daily ebb
What causes
folded crust had been filled up with and flow of the tides.
the tides?
water. These were the first oceans. At certain times of
day the level of the water rises, usually
The rivers that flow across the face of ten or twenty feet. Then it recedes and
the land carry millions leaves a long, empty stretch of beach
Why is sea
of tons of silt and sedi- behind it. This is caused by the gravi-
water salty?
m e n t d o w n to the tational pull of the sun and the moon.
oceans each year. These dissolved ma- During the periods of new moon and
16
full moon, the sun, the earth and the sachusetts, high tide changes the level
moon are all in a straight line. And so of the water only about one foot. But
both moon and sun work together to in the Bay of Fundy, only a few hun-
cause extremely high tides, known as dred miles north of Nantucket, the
"spring tides." water level changes as much as forty
On the other hand, when the moon is feet.
in the first and third quarter, it is at These differences are caused by the
right angles to the sun. Under these irregularities of the ocean floor.
conditions, the pull of the sun and The floor of the sea is not flat, but
moon tend to offset each other, and instead is composed of vast basins,
thus the tides are lower. These are some broader and deeper than others.
called "neap tides." In these basins the sea water goes back
But there are other puzzling things and forth like the water in a dishpan or
about the tides that cannot be explained bathtub when it is disturbed. But water
by the simple force of gravity. in a bathtub reacts more violently than
Around most of the Atlantic, the water in a shallow pan. And, in the same
tides come and go twice a day. But in way, the disturbance created by the pull
parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, of the moon and sun on the ocean's
the tide comes in only once a day. At waters, is always much greater where
Nantucket Island, off the coast of Mas- the ocean basin is deeper.
17
PRE-CAMBRIAN ERA P A L E O Z O I C ERA
18
PALEOZOIC ERA M E S O Z O I C ERA C E N O Z O I C ERA
i>
z
>
z>
Z '
REPTILES
AMPHIBIANS
/•"TS, -A
AGE OF MAMMALS
<m* ^Slltl
Ammmm- V
fcit, ' ft"- - .
During periods of the earth's geological history, great land masses probably connected (from left to right),
Siberia and Alaska, South America and Africa, England and Scandinavia. Fossil evidence supports this.
In the same way, the tumbling waves tops of many mountains once lay at the
of the oceans wash away the sands of bottom of the sea.
the beaches and alter the shape of the
shorelines. A careful study of these fossil clues
Again, geologists can read the his- has given scientists
What was the
tory of the changing continents in the the following picture
earth like
"picture book" of the rocks. long ago?
of what our earth
Fossils of animals that once lived on must have been like
land have been found at the bottom of at various periods of geologic history.
the sea. This indicates that these par- At one time, a bridge of land prob-
ticular sea bottoms were at one time a ably connected northern Europe with
part of the dry land. And this seems rea- Greenland. Another such land bridge
sonable, since we have learned that the possibly extended between Spain and
19
what is now the eastern coast of the vast amounts of rock and soil from the
United States. At still another stage in mountain's top and sides to the valley
the long history of the changing con- below.
tinents, Africa, Australia and South Glaciers are formed in high places
America were all part of the same mass where there is snow all the year round.
of land — and forests of fern trees As fresh snow falls and piles up on the
grew across what are today thousands snows of previous winters, the snowfield
of miles of open water. becomes deeper and heavier until the
Two hundred million years ago, most bottom layers are compressed into a
of North America was under water. sheet of solid ice.
Then, as the mountains on the east and When this huge mass of snow and ice
west emerged above the waves, a great reaches a certain thickness, it breaks
inland sea covered what are now the away of its own weight and begins to
midwestern states. slide, or "flow," down the mountain.
Then, much later, during the Stone Then new layers of snow and ice col-
Age, many thousands of years ago, lect in the crevice made when the gla-
the British Isles and the southern tip cier tore itself from the mountain wall.
of Sweden were connected to the con- A glacier flows very slowly, usually
tinent of Europe. A vast swampy plain only a few inches a day. It continues
filled in what are now the North Sea downward until its lower edge reaches
and the English Channel. The River a point on the mountainside where the
Thames in England and the Rhine in temperatures are warm enough to melt
Germany flowed together to create one snow and ice in summer. There it begins
mighty stream. to melt, and the water keeps going on
At about this time, too, Siberia was in the form of streams and rivers.
probably connected to Alaska by a land If a glacier ends at the edge of the
bridge across the Bering Strait. It is sea, large chunks of it break off and
believed that early man must have mi- become icebergs.
grated across this bridge from Asia to
become the ancestors of the American Thousands of years ago, a series of gla-
Indians. Mammoths, the huge, furry ciers spread southward
What was
forerunners of elephants, apparently from the North Pole
the ice age?
took this same route in their travels, and buried more than
for their bones have been found in the one fourth of the earth's land surface
American deserts. under a crushing sheet of ice. The ice
covered all of what today is Canada, all
A glacier is a river of ice that "flows" of New England and New York, the
down a mountainside. entire Great Lakes area and many parts
What causes T c of the western plains.
, . n Like a river ot runningc
a glacier?
water, it cuts out a As the great glaciers slowly ad-
stream bed for itself and transports vanced, they levelled mountains,
20
the changed the courses of old rivers and
lley created new ones, gouged out the Great
Lakes basin and filled the lakes with
ices water as the ice melted and the glaciers
md. finally receded.
the They left behind thousands of new
ield lakes, new hills and valleys, and the
the rock-strewn landscape of New England
3 a which marked their lower edge.
ice
aks
; to
ain.
col-
gla-
all.
ally
ues
hes
the
lelt
;ins
on
the Glaciers are bodies of ice moving down mountains or valleys, forming when snowfalls can't melt fast enough.
md
21
A river is seen winding
down from the mountains.
22
Sometimes rainfalls may be so unusu-
ally heavy that the
What causes
normal river banks
floods?
cannot contain them.
Then the rivers overflow into the sur-
rounding land and cause a flood.
Floods can be terribly destructive.
They often wash away fertile topsoil
and may leave the land unfit for cultiva-
tion for years to follow. They are dread
destroyers of property, sometimes wash-
ing away entire towns and taking a hor-
rible toll of human lives. Diagram of very fertile land known as a river delta
9 fai
If cloud is blown to cool place: rain falls; to warm place: moisture is absorbed and cloud disappears.
23
the heavier, quieter waters of the sea, Some of this water, however, is de-
they are quickly slowed down. As a toured on its journey and trapped for
result, immense quantities of this mud a time in lakes.
and silt settle to the bottom at the Lakes are fed by rivers, and also
river's mouth to create a wide, flat area drained by them. Where this two-way
of very fertile land known as a delta. system of in-take and out-go is working,
The deltas of the Mississippi and the the water of the lake is as sweet as that
Nile, particularly, are known for the ex- of the rivers, and is known as a fresh-
tremely rich farmlands which they have water lake. But where there is no outlet
built up over the centuries. And most from the lake, the water becomes salty.
of the country which is now the Nether- The Caspian Sea in Asia Minor, the
lands was built up from deltas of the largest lake in the world, is a salt-water
Rhine and other rivers which flowed lake. So are the Dead Sea in the Middle
from the German highlands down to the East and the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
North Sea. The largest fresh-water lake is Lake
Superior, on the United States-Cana-
All of the water in the world moves in dian border. It is 350 miles long and 160
a continuous cycle. miles wide. Second in size is Lake Vic-
What causes T h e §un evaporates
toria in Africa.
fresh- and salt- .. £ r
, , , _ it from the surface
water lakes?
of the sea. There it Lakes, as a whole, are the least perma-
nent of the earth's
condenses and falls back to the earth as Why do lakes hic features
rain. And the rainwater flows through and swamps r, ,
rivers back to the sea again. ,
dry up?
0 Even at the moment
they are born, they be-
The Everglades: A great tract of Florida swamp land. gin to dry up. All lakes, even the largest
ones, are in this continuous drying-up
process. Lake Superior, for example, is
only a remnant of a once much larger
lake that was formed by a glacier.
24
Strangely enough, the rivers that feed Quicksand is a very loose, very light
lakes andfillthem up are also the means kind of sand which is
IS
of eventually destroying them. As soon . , mixed with water. It is
quicksand?
as a lake basin is formed, the feeding usually found in swamps
rivers begin to deposit large quantities and other wet places on top of a heavy
of silt and sediment on the lake bottom. clay base through which the water can-
Over a long enough period of time, these not drain off.
deposits fill the lake bed completely, Quicksand looks like ordinary sand,
turning it first into a swamp and then a which is why unlucky animals, and
meadow. Finally, the last of the water sometimes people, stumble into it by
runs off in rivers and continues on its mistake and sink. Unlike grains of ordi-
interrupted journey to the sea. nary sand, which have angular edges,
The greatest expanse of swampland quicksand grains are round. The under-
in the world, the Florida Everglades, is lying water separates them and lifts
the remaining part of what was once the them up — in a sense, it "floats" them
ocean floor. The land rose up, and the — and thus the sand cannot sustain
line of the sea retreated, but not far solid weight. Any heavy object that
enough to dry up the area completely. falls into quicksand sinks as though
However, the Everglades are gradu- through water, but much more slowly.
ally going dry. Parts of them have been
drained artificially to create farmlands Every time it rains, a certain amount of
and townsites, but by doing this, man r a i n w a t e r is
has only helped to speed up Nature's How does water soaked up by the
get under
process. Streams have already begun to earth. Some of it
the ground?
take form in the 'Glades, and in time
is held by the soil,
they will serve the same purpose as the
and feeds the roots of growing plants.
man-made drainage ditches. Then, on
But most of it seeps on down to a level
some distant day, the entire area of the
where all the cracks and openings in
Everglades will be rich, fertile farming
the underlying rocks are completely
and ranching country.
filled with water.
Indeed, there is more water under
the ground than there is in all the sur-
face lakes and pools.
As a rule, the level of this under-
ground water tends to follow the con-
tours of the earth's surface. For this rea-
son it is possible to get water from a well
drilled on top of a hill as well as from
one drilled in the valley below.
When the level of this underground
water comes into contact with the sur-
25
SPRINGS OCCUR WHEN WATER FLOWS LATERALLY If a well is drilled down to tap this
ACROSS WATER TABLE, EMERGING AT SURFACE
imprisoned water supply, the pressure
from either side will force the water to
the surface. If there is a natural crack
in the earth, and if the pressure is great
enough, the water will gush up like a
PERMEABLE SANDSTONE!
natural fountain.
Often the water in artesian streams
face — usually on the side of a hill — flows hundreds of miles, from the place
the water seeps out to create a spring.
This spring water is cooler and usually
tastes sweeter than river water because
BELT OF SOIL MOISTURE
it has not been exposed to the heat of INTERMEDIATE BELT
the sun.
WATER TABLE
WELL
where it descended into the earth as
rain to the point where it emerges again
from wells. For this reason — since they
are not dependent upon local conditions
of rainfall — artesian wells usually sup-
I 1 M M ply an endless source of water, even in
times of extreme drought, when other
Sometimes a layer of water-bearing rock wells in the vicinity go dry.
is encased by strata
What is an WATER TABLE USUALLY FOLLOWS SHAPE OF EARTH
of solid rock on top
artesian flow?
as well as under-
neath. This, then, becomes a sort of
natural "water pipe" from which the
water inside cannot escape. This water-
bearing strata is called an artesian (ar-
TEE-zhan) flow.
Most underground water, as we have
seen, comes from
ARTESIAN W E I L
SOMETIMES FLOWS
What is
rain that seeps into
TO SURFACE FREELY
connate water?
WELL
the earth. But there
is still another kind, called connate
water, that has lain sealed up in pock-
ets of rock deep within the earth for
many millions of years.
When the sedimentary rock forma-
26
CONNATE, OR
TRAPPED WATER
: •'•i-SII'li
A diagram of a connate, or trapped, water deposit ill
28
•
The action of water over a period of millions of years eroded the plain that is today Bryce Canyon. Pinnacles
of amazing shapes and colours have justly made the canyon world-famous. Inset (left) is a natural bridge.
At one time, this was a broad, sandy In desert regions, the wind blows
plain. But as millions of years went by, away the sand and shifts it from place
the rivers that flowed across it dis- to place, often leaving outcroppings of
solved the limestone in the underlying bare rock. Then the wind-blown sand
rock and ate away the harder rocks bit is blasted against the rock with the
by tiny bit — until, at last, Bryce same effect that sandpaper has when
Canyon became the place of fairyland you rub it across a piece of wood. Grad-
palaces and monuments that it is today. ually the rock is worn away — the
The action of the wind is nearly as softer parts going first and the harder
important in the reshaping of the land parts remaining. The results are often
as that of water. such odd and beautiful pieces of wind-
and-sand sculpture as natural rock At one time, this part of Texas and
bridges or balanced rocks that look like Oklahoma was a lush grassland. The
giant tops. thick grass roots held in the moisture of
the soil, and even in times of drought
We have seen that the forces of nature the land was green and fertile.
are constantly at Then farmers began to plough up the
How has man
work changing grasslands to plant crops. And in the
helped to change
the surface of the early 1930's, there came a long dry
the surface
of the earth?
earth. Man has spell. The crops failed, and the loose
also d o n e his soil, with no grass roots to hold it to-
share to alter the appearance and char- gether, began to blow away in vast dust
acteristics of parts of the land. Some- storms.
times, as in the instance of the area in For many years, the land produced
the Southwest of the United States no crops, and most of the people who
which was appropriately called the lived in the area left it and moved to
Dust Bowl, this has had very tragic other parts of the country.
effects.
i \
? m
m
-t' •
m»vmt
m
The use of irrigation ditches in sandy, barren stretches of land has resulted in productive farmland acreage.
30
Gradually, however, the people who
stayed on the land began to plant it
again with grass. And the farmers
learned how to plant their crops in such
a way that the soil could be conserved.
Today, what was once the Dust Bowl
is again prosperous farming and graz-
ing land.
%
Sometimes, unlike what happened in
How can a
the Dust Bowl,
man has often
:<§*
desert be made
to bloom?
changed the face
of the land for the
Granite is an igneous rock (formed from fire or heat).
better. There are many parts of the
world where early settlers have made
their homes in dry,.arid deserts where
nothing could grow but cactus and
other desert plants useless to man.
By digging irrigation ditches and
bringing in water from distant rivers,
farmers changed the earth from un-
productive desert sand to fertile soil.
And today, large areas of what once
were deserts, have become most fruitful
farmlands.
rj j
Minerals
W
HALITE CRYSTALS O F SULPHUR HEMATITE
HSW-O-E-C
All rocks are made from a great calcite crystal with a hammer, each tiny
many kinds of minerals, and when you fragment will be a perfect little six-
break open a piece of rock, you can see sided shape with smooth surfaces and
these minerals — like quartz and mica equal angles.
— usually in crystal form. Amber is not a true mineral, since it
Here are some common minerals is the fossilized remains of the resin of
that you might find in rocks around ancient fir trees that fell into swamps.
your home. But it is an interesting mineral-like sub-
Quartz is probably the commonest stance to examine. Quite often the
of all mineral crystals. It is found in all bodies of insects that were trapped in
sizes — some long and slender, some the resin when it was liquid, thousands
thick and squat — but all quartz crys- of years ago, are still perfectly
tals have identically the same shape. preserved.
They are six-sided prisms, with six- Pyrite (PIE-rite) is known as "fool's
sided pyramids on the top and bottom. gold" because it fooled so many miners
Quartz is one of the hardest of all min- in the Old West into thinking that they
erals. It cannot be scratched with a had found a gold mine. Pyrite, a beau-
knife, but it will scratch or cut glass. tiful, sparkling mineral, is often used
Quartz sand is the basic ingredient in to make ornaments and jewelry.
glass-making.
Mica (MY-kuh) is found in granite Put two or three teaspoonfuls of table
and other igneous rocks. It can be salt into half a
How can you
7 , £ ,
split into paper-thin sheets that are glass of water,
make your own z, . XT
transparent, flexible and fireproof. It is mineral crystals? Stir 11 w e l L N W
°
used to make the little windows in elec- suspend a piece
tric fuses and the larger windows in of string into the liquid from a stick
oven doors. In some primitive coun- laid across the rim of the glass. Put it
tries, it has been used as window glass. away in a cool place for several days.
Talc is a curious white mineral so At the end of that time, the salt will
soft that you can scratch it with your have formed crystals on the end of the
fingernail. It feels greasy to the touch. string in the shape of little cubes of
It is used commercially as a lubricant, pure halite that sparkle like a cluster
and as the base for talcum powder. of miniature diamonds.
Calcite (KAL-site) is a common
mineral that is found in a number of
forms. It may appear in thin sheets, like
mica, or in diamond-shaped crystals,
like quartz. You may sometimes find
a crystal of calcite that is as transparent u
as glass, but the curious thing about it
is that when you look through it you
see everything double. If you break a
34
ce it
in of
mps.
sub-
the
:d in
ands
ctly
ool's
iners
they
)eau-
An ancient forest scene
used
table
tlf a Treasures in the Ground
iter.
Now About three hundred million years ago, plateaus. And what had once been the
piece great forests of tree tree-filled swamps were now imprisoned
stick How was
ferns covered the hot, between thick layers of rock thousands
oil made?
'ut it swampy earth. As they of feet below the surface.
days. wilted and died, they tumbled into the But while all this land-change had
: will swamps, and there they sank down into been going on, a curious thing had been
>f the the ooze. As thousands of centuries happening. Pressures from inside the
es of crept slowly by, the buried tree ferns earth had brought about a chemical
lister were covered up by other ferns and change in the masses of trees and ferns
trees that fell into the water on top of and other vegetable matter that had
them. sunk into the original swamps so many
Then the face of the earth slowly millions of years before. Now it had
changed, and the swamp was covered been changed into an underground
over with silt which turned to rock. reservoir of the thick black liquid
And at last the land sank down and which we call petroleum, or crude oil.
was swallowed up by the waters of the Sometimes these underground de-
seas. More millions of years passed, posits came close enough to the surface
and the land rose up from the sea bot- so that the oil seeped up and formed
toms again to form hills and plains and black, sticky puddles. And the ancient
35
people used this crude oil for lights and
cooking fires.
It was not until about a hundred
years ago, that scientists learned to
drill for petroleum and refine it into
such products as petrol, paraffin and
lubricating oil. But in the modern
world, it has become our most impor-
tant fuel. Without it, we could not
operate our cars or ships or factories
or power plants.
This is a fossil leaf which has been embedded in coal.
Oil deposits are usually trapped
under the ground between layers of
folded rock. The petroleum floats on a Coal was formed in much the same way
pool of connate water, with a pocket as oil, and at about the
How was
of natural gas on top. When a well is coal made?
same t i m e in the
drilled down to the oil deposit, the pres- earth's geological his-
sure of the gases forces the petroleum tory. Vast masses of vegetable matter
to the surface. fell into ancient swamps, rotted, were
covered up by mud and silt which
turned into stone, sank into the sea and
then rose up again.
But in some strange way, these
rotted tree ferns and mosses, instead of
changing into liquid oil, had been sub-
jected to different kinds of forces which
OIL WELL
transformed them into the hard, black,
brittle rock which we call coal.
w LIMESTONE Coal lies under the ground in long,
thick seams, sandwiched in between
layers of slate or shale. Sometimes,
when a piece of coal is broken open,
SANDSTONE
J?/ the fossil imprint of a fern leaf can be
m HS>©B.
ROCK
fdl^TION
clearly seen, still as perfectly shaped
as when it grew upon the ancient tree.
m//
* X'
GAS
III
V \ V .
Iron is perhaps the world's most im-
gm.
WM p o r t a n t mineral.
j/f/W Why are
From iron we make
iron and steel
, w important?
steel, and from steel
we make most of
This is a cutaway view of an oil deposit in the earth. the necessary things that we use every
36
day — buildings, motor-cars, ships, There are deposits of iron ore all
trains, tools, machinery, stoves, fur- over the British Isles. When the ore
naces, refrigerators. A day never passes lies near to the surface, it is scraped
during which we do not depend upon out of great open pits by steam shovels.
some article made of iron or steel. If it lies deeper, shafts are dug and the
Although iron was one of the most ore is mined like coal.
abundant elements from which our The ore is converted to steel in
earth was made — and though the great mills. Sheffield is Britain's most
earth's central core is almost pure iron famous steel-production centre.
— iron practically never occurs in its
pure state on the surface where man Next to iron, copper is our most useful
can get at it. Instead, iron is mixed with metal. It is essential
other minerals in the form of ore, and to the manufacture
other metals „ , ,
the ore itself is imbedded in the rock useful to us? of e l e c t n c a l
equip-
of the crust. Extracting it is a long and ment, and has many
difficult process. other uses as well. Combined with zinc,
Bessemer converters shown in operation in a steel mill. In the process, steel is manufactured from cast iron.
37
l i
• .
38
"most precious" metal, is used for America. True emeralds are a deep
money and jewelry, but has little use green in colour.
in industry. Rubies, at least the finest ones, come
Silver is also used for jewelry, and from Burma. The most valuable of
for fine tableware. It is the best known these fiery red stones are known as
conductor of electricity, and is there- "pigeon blood" rubies, since from an-
fore used in the very finest electrical cient times the standard of perfection
equipment. has been to compare the colour of the
Uranium (u-RAY-nee-um), the stone to that of a drop of blood from a
"miracle metal" of modern times, is our freshly killed pigeon.
chief source of atomic power. It is Sapphires are found in many hues
found in many kinds of rocks, such as and colours, but the most valuable are
uranite, carnotite, davidite and gum- those o f a deep cornflower blue which
mite. seem to glow with an inner light that
takes the form of a star. These are
Since earliest times, people all over the known as "star sapphires."
world have
What are the
treasured rare In addition to the really precious gems,
"precious" minerals?
and beautiful there are a great
What are
mineral stones as their most prized pos- many beautiful gem
some common
sessions. The most precious of these gem stones?
stones that any boy
gem stones are diamonds, emeralds, or girl might find
rubies and sapphires. not far from home. Some of these are:
Diamonds are the hardest of all Aquamarine, a lovely bluish-green
stones. A diamond will cut any other stone that is usually found embedded
known substance, but the only thing in rock ledges.
that will cut a diamond is another dia- Amethyst, a delicate purple stone
mond. Most diamonds come from Af- found in the Highlands of Scotland,
rica, but they are found all over the ordinarily in clusters of small crystals.
world. There are diamond mines in Agate, a form of quartz that has
India, South America and the United concentric (circles one within another)
States. The largest diamond ever found, layers of different colours. When cut
the Cullinan, was discovered by a and polished, agate makes jewellery of
farmer in South Africa who happened gleaming beauty.
to see a shiny stone sticking out of the Clear Quartz. Sometimes one is
ground. It was about the size of a man's lucky enough to find a quartz crystal
fist and was cut up to become part of with a hollow cavity inside that con-
the British Crown Jewels. tains a drop or two of water. This water
Emeralds, if they are large and have somehow became imprisoned inside the
no flaws, are worth more than dia- stone when the crystal was formed, and
monds. Most of them come f r o m since it cannot evaporate, it will remain
Ecuador, Peru and Colombia in South there forever.
39
CARNELIAN MOSS A G A T E STEATITE
BERYL MALACHITE
TURQUOISE ONYX
Chalcedony, the smooth, round, brownish in colour, but the most
semi-transparent pebbles that are often prized stones are deep, clear red or
found on beaches or along the banks of emerald green.
streams. Sun Stone. Tiny specks of mica im-
Garnet, another stone that is found bedded in clear quartz crystal give this
in the Scottish Highlands. Most are unusual stone the appearance of flash-
ing sparks of fire from deep inside.
42
1 fill
43
When ground water seeps down form a column. Sometimes a number
through the earth, of these columns join together and di-
w h a t are
it reacts upon the vide the cave into rooms.
stalactites ,.
. , . - limestone over Still another kind of mineral
and stalagmites?
which it passes to "growth" found in caves are the beau-
form a mineral called calcium bicar- tiful and delicate clusters of helictites
bonate. As this water slowly filters (hel-ICK-tites). These are formed, like
through the ceiling of the cave, drop stalactites, by the gradual evaporation
by single drop, each drop clings to the of water. But no one knows quite how
ceiling for a moment or so before it they achieved their fantastic shapes.
drips to the floor. But in that short
moment, a slight amount of evapora- The most common type of shallow
tion takes place, and when the drop of caves are formed on
What are
water falls, it leaves behind a tiny wind caves?
the sides of hills or
amount of calcium bicarbonate. rocky cliffs by the ac-
After many centuries, these tiny de- tion of the wind. This happens when
posits build on each other and eventu- a layer of soft rock, such as shale, is
ally form a stone "icicle" that hangs sandwiched in between two layers of
down from the ceiling. This is called a hard sandstone. Wind currents swirl
stalactite (stal-ACK-tite ). across the face of the hillside and scoop
When each drop of water falls to the out particles of the shale, often digging
floor beneath the stalactite, it splashes quite far back into the mountain.
and leaves another small deposit of cal- These are the caves most often used
cium bicarbonate. These deposits grad- by ancient cave men for their homes,
ually build upward, and form a stone and by wild animals for their lairs.
pillar rising up from the floor, which is Often the rolling waters at the base
called a stalagmite (stal-AG-mite). of a waterfall dig out a cave under the
In the course of a long time, the stal- overhanging rock. The most famous of
actite hanging down may unite with these waterfall caves is known as the
the stalagmite protruding upward to Cave of the Winds, beneath Niagara
44
Falls. Visitors are taken into it, and Sometimes they drop suddenly over a
there they can stand behind the huge precipice to create solid waterfalls of
pounding wall of water that roars down ice that are nearly half as high as
from the river above. Niagara Falls.
In the open corridors of the caves,
Some of the most fantastic caves in the columns of ice rise up from the floor
world are the ice caves of like crystal stalagmites. These were
What are . ^
« the European
ice caves? r mountams. created by the slow dripping and re-
Ages ago, when the freezing of melted ice falling from
earth's climate was much warmer than above. Now and then these columns
it is now, underground rivers tunneled fuse together to form delicately sculp-
their way through the solid mountain tured ice curtains.
rock. Then the long ice age descended Often stalactites of ice hang sus-
on the Northern Hemisphere, and these pended from the ceiling, so crystal
rivers froze in their underground beds. clear that they can act as a gigantic
Today, they exist as caves of ice. magnifying glass. Occasionally, bub-
In places, far under the mountain bles of air, imprisoned in a stalactite
tops, these ice rivers flow into ice lakes when it froze, give the huge formation
that are as smooth as skating rinks. the quality of a gleaming jewel.
45
Since limestone caves were created by sharply downward to a depth of nearly
the action of 200 feet, and there it began to level
What are , ,
, _ »
underwater caves?
u n d e r g
°
r o u n d off. Its width varied from 70 to 150
feet — and its height, from floor to
water, it is not
ceiling, was in places only 5 feet and in
surprising that many such caves are
others more than 100. The floor was
completely flooded. One of the most
of sand, with patches of clay and lime-
amazing of these underwater caverns
stone rubble.
is Wakulla Cave in Florida.
The divers explored the cavern for
Wakulla Spring, source of the Wak-
a distance of 1,100 feet from the en-
ulla River, is a small lake that is fed en-
trance. Here the bottom dropped down
tirely by u n d e r g r o u n d water. F o r
sharply into a much wider and deeper
many years, scientists had wondered
section of the cave, but beyond this
about the source of this water. And so
point the divers could not go without
a group of geologists, equipped with
running short of air.
skin-diving gear and other equipment,
It is believed, however, that Wakulla
set out to explore it.
Cave may extend for several miles to
They found that underneath the sur-
the source of its water supply.
face of the spring, the cave slanted
46
There were four main layers of
packed-down dirt and debris under the
cave floor, each one representing a defi-
nite period in the history of man's
progress.
Early man lived in warm and protective caves.
The top layer dates from the present
time to about seven thousand years
been lived in by humans for about ago. Here were found pieces of pot-
one hundred thousand years! tery, stones for grinding grain, and the
Luckily for the scientists, the tenants bones of domestic animals—evidences
of the cave, from earliest times, were that man was learning to grow his own
very untidy housekeepers. Instead of crops and tend his own herds.
sweeping out their trash and refuse, Below this was a layer said to be
they simply buried it under succeeding some twelve thousand years old. There
layers of dust and dirt. So by digging was no indication here that the people
down into the floor of the cave, the of this period knew anything about
researchers were able to lay bare a farming or the care of animals.
cross section of human history — in The third layer went back in time
much the same way that the fossils in to about 40,000 B.C. Yet in all of the
layers of sedimentary rocks give us a thirty thousand years that had passed
picture-history of the earth itself. between the laying down of this layer
47
and the one above it, there was no which he found on the cave floor, the
evidence that man had made much child wandered off into another room
progress in his way of living. carrying a candle to light her way.
Finally, the fourth and last layer of Suddenly she looked up to the ceil-
the debris on the floor of Shanidar ing of the cave and screamed:
Cave takes the history of mankind back "Bulls! Daddy! Bulls! Come quick!"
to its earliest beginnings, about one Her father came running, and when
hundred thousand years ago. he reached her, he saw an amazing
It is from such bits and pieces of sight.
evidence as this that we are able to put There on the ceiling and walls of the
together a picture of the life of primi- cave were the pictures of animals.
tive man at the dawn of human time. Who painted them? Why did the
primitive artist paint them in a cave?
One day, about a hundred years ago, How did he get light to see by?
a little girl and Nobody yet knows the answers. All
Who made , .
. _ her £father were that we know for sure is that the paint-
the cave paintings?
exploring a cave ings were done by an unknown Stone
in Spain. As the father was examining Age genius about twenty-five thousand
ancient flint hammers and arrowheads years ago.
An unknown Stone A g e artist drew this picture of a bison on a cave wall in Spain thousands of years ago.
48
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