Bibliography

P. P. LAZAREV. Advances in Geophysics. GIZ, 1929. 83 pp. (Series “The Newest Currents of Scientific Thought,” book 17). Price, in paperback, 1 ruble.

The little book by Academician P. P. Lazarev named in the title consists of three parts: the first chapter is devoted to a consideration of the mathematical and experimental method in geophysics; the second chapter—to the experimental study of processes occurring in the solid crust of the terrestrial globe; the third—to motions occurring in the gaseous and liquid envelope of the terrestrial globe.

Geophysics is a comparatively young science; therefore an analysis of questions of the methodology of geophysical research is quite timely and necessary. The “method of models,” based on the replacement of some complex natural phenomenon by another, simpler one, yet obeying the same general laws as the phenomenon under study, has already yielded interesting results in the hands of many investigators, including those of the author himself. Academician Lazarev succeeded, by means of models, in demonstrating the connection between trade winds and ocean currents and in shedding light on changes in the climate of the terrestrial globe in various geological epochs. A large part of the third chapter is devoted to an exposition of these original works by the author.

In the second chapter and partly in the first, a number of examples are used to set forth the successes of modern geophysics in the study of the solid envelope of the terrestrial globe, due chiefly to the application of experimental and theoretical methods. In 83 pages, of course, it was impossible to report the successes of all of geophysics; for that, more than one volume would have had to be written. The author has selected the most typical and important advances in the field under consideration (the study of the form and motions of the Earth, the theory of isostasy, seismology, the doctrine of the states of aggregation of matter inside the Earth, etc.) and has presented them in a wholly original and simple manner. Some areas of applied geophysics which in recent years have been widely developed both in our country and abroad—for example, geophysical prospecting for useful minerals—are treated sparingly. It would be desirable for a separate little book to appear in the series “The Newest Currents of Scientific Thought,” devoted to the modern successes in the application of “physical methods” to the discovery of mineral deposits.

On the whole the little book is well published, although annoying misprints occur.

M. Polikarpov.