Bibliography

Acad. P. P. Lazarev, Fundamentals of Earth Physics, ONTI, Editorial Office for Mining-Fuel and Geological-Prospecting Literature, 1939.

In scientific, and especially in popular-scientific, literature one can count very few works devoted to the exposition of questions concerning the physics of the solid shell of our planet. The publication of Acad. P. P. Lazarev’s work Fundamentals of Earth Physics is therefore to be welcomed. In a very popular and at the same time strictly scientific form, the author presents in this work a summary of our present-day knowledge in the field of the study of the solid shell of the Earth, outlines paths for the further development of this science, and—what is especially valuable—establishes the interrelations between the development of the doctrine of the structure of matter and the science of the physical state and development of the Earth.

Acad. P. P. Lazarev’s work consists of two parts: 1. The terrestrial globe as a cosmic body and 2. The solid shell of the terrestrial globe. The first part treats questions of the figure of the Earth, its formation, the motions of the terrestrial globe, and its place in the universe. The second part chiefly considers questions connected with the Earth’s crust, its nature, chemical composition, and the movements it undergoes. Quite a large place in this part of the book is devoted to the exposition of the author’s ideas on the nature of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism. The last chapter examines the temperature regime of the Earth’s crust in connection with the motions of the terrestrial globe about its axis and around the Sun.

Of particular interest in the work under review are the chapters that set forth the basic propositions of the doctrine of the Earth’s crust. Questions of estimating the age of the Earth’s solid shell occupy a central place in the first chapter of the second part of the book. Here the author gives a description of a number of methods for determining the age of the Earth’s crust: the method of W. Thomson and Kirchhoff, based on analysis of the process of cooling of the terrestrial globe; a method based on studying changes in the concentration of salts in the ocean; the method of studying oceanic sediments; and the radioactive method. The second chapter treats questions of the chemical composition of the Earth’s solid shell and explains the observed distribution of chemical elements in the body of the Earth in the light of the modern doctrine of atomic structure. In the third chapter material is given relating to the physical state of the inner parts of the terrestrial globe, and a connection is established between the plasticity of the masses composing it and the phenomenon of isostasy. The fourth chapter of the second part of the work under review is devoted to the exposition of the basic propositions of the doctrine of the movements of the Earth’s crust.

Of the large number of theories of epirogenic and orogenic movements, the author considers Suess’s contraction theory. Much attention is devoted to the fundamental propositions of seismology, which has given us the maximum amount of information about the structure of the most deeply lying parts of the terrestrial globe.

The book is useful for all who wish to expand their knowledge of the Earth. The language of the book is precise and clear. The book is presented quite well.

A. I. Zaborovsky, Moscow