Abstract
PROF. SUESS has recently contributed a suggestive paper on peculiarities in the structure of some of the heavenly bodies 1 to the Academy of Sciences of Vienna. He remarks at the outset that the present phase of geology is similar to that of anatomy at the time when the structure of the human body was first compared with that of other living organisms. For the purpose of comparative study it is essential that the earth should be regarded as a whole, and when this is done it becomes fairly obvious that acid rocks and their derivatives, which form so large a portion of the visible surface, are far less important as constituents of the globe than might at first sight be supposed. We see but little of those heavy substances to, which the earth owes its high density, and which appear to be more closely associated with the basic than with the acid rocks. Our author considers that for the general purpose which he has in view three main types of rock should be recognised-SiAl rocks (sal or salic rocks), SiMg rocks (sima or simic rocks), and NiFe rocks (nife or nific rocks). For the simic rocks containing chromium and iron he uses the term crofesima. The most important occurrences of platinum are in the crofesimic rocks, which also contain almost always traces of nickel. These rocks are of deep-seated origin, and it is a significant fact that they frequently occur as intrusions along planes of movement in the younger mountain chains, such as the Alps, e.g. zone of Ivrea.
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References
"Über Einzelheiten in der Besehafifenheit einiger Himmelskörper" (Sitz. a. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Mathem-naturw. Klasse, Bd. cxvi., October, 1907.)
"Spectroscopic Comparison of Mela's present in Certain Terrestrial and Celeuial Light-sources" (Solar Physics Committee, 1907).
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Peculiarities in the Structure of some Heavenly Bodies . Nature 77, 490 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/077490a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077490a0
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