Abstract
THE discontinuous sialic continents floating in the continuous simatic layer and the folded belts of the crust present two of the grandest, problems of geology. In this essay, the solutions advanced are these. First, in the early liquid stage of the earth, crystallization began with the sinking of heavy olivine and the floating of light felspar ; these floating crystals were carried by convection to the poles to form clumps which, as the liquid magma became more viscous and convection ceased, were then moved to the equator by the Eötvö3 force. During these operations, radioactive substances, concentrated in the felspathic material, heated the underlying olivine-layer which, thus expanded, elevated this material above the oceans to make the Laurasia and Gondwanaland of the palæogeographer.
The Formation of the Continents by Convection
By G. F. S. Hills. Pp. vi + 102. (London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1947.) 7s. 6d. net.
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READ, H. The Formation of the Continents by Convection. Nature 162, 981 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162981a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162981a0