Abstract
THE phenomena, which were ably presented by the distinguished geologist, Mr. Lesley, to the National Academy of Sciences, and which seem to demonstrate that the outer shell of the earth has sensibly shrunk, in some directions at least, since its original formation, naturally invite the attention of physicists to the possible causes of such a result. The most obvious cause of the shrinking of the earth is its cooling. But to shrink two per cent linearly, which is the amount deduced by Mr. Lesley from the observed geological phenomena, involves a probable cooling of the whole earth of not less than two thousand degrees centigrade, which would require that its original temperature should be higher than would be consistent with the solidity of these shrunk strata.
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PEIRCE, B. The Contraction of the Earth . Nature 3, 315 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/003315b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003315b0