Abstract
THIS volume opens with the well-known paper, “On the Influence of Geological Changes on the Earth's Axis of Rotation” (1877), in which Sir George Darwin investigated whether it was possible for known causes to produce a motion of the earth's axis comparable with that required by geologists to account for the supposed “Glacial period” in the earth's history. The result is definitely established that any change in the obliquity of the ecliptic which can have been produced by gradual deformation of the earth's shape is necessarily very small, about 1/2200 of a second of arc at most. The possibilities of wanderings of the pole are shown to be greater-from 1° to 3° in each geological period is possible. Cumulative motions of this type might account for the change since the supposed Glacial period, but any such explanation would be incompatible with the belief of geologists that where the continents now stand they have always stood.
Scientific Papers.
By Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S. Vol. iii., Figures of Equilibrium of Rotating Liquid and Geophysical Investigations. Pp. xvi + 527. (Cambridge: University Press, 1910.) Price 15s. net.
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Scientific Papers . Nature 84, 235–236 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084235a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084235a0
