DIASTROPHISM AND THE FORMATIVE PROCESSES 685 
compression process. In the latter case, the heat generated in the 
course of the compression was secondary to the revolutional 
energies. The special courses taken by both the primary and 
secondary energies become therefore vital elements in the com- 
pressional process; to these we shall presently turn. 
As indicated above, to form estimates of the energy-values that 
were inherited by the earth at the stages when it began to make 
its automatic record of self-compression, it is necessary to enter 
into a more specific analysis of its status in the two hypothetical 
cases. 
COMPARATIVE VALUES OF ENERGY AVAILABLE FOR DIASTROPHISM 
The deformations of the earth are the most available test of 
the energies that entered into its self-compression, though by no 
means the only test. There is now no ground to doubt that the 
diastrophism was large, whatever estimate may be made of its 
precise value. There must have been enough energy in an avail- 
able form to actuate the distortions involved, and this energy must 
have been properly distributed in time and place. The sources of 
this energy need therefore to be considered in respect to their 
availability, as well as their adequacy. Fortunately, the problem 
for all cosmological lines of descent seems to center in the alterna- 
tive: Was the earth assembled in a fluidal condition dominated 
by heat, or was it built up gradually by accessions of small frag- 
mental matter in a cool, solid, highly mixed state? If there are 
tenable hypotheses of an intermediate sort, the considerations that 
apply to these type-views can easily be adapted to them. 
The chief energies available for the evolution from this point on, 
are (1) the residue of the potential energy of position, except of 
course what still remains potential; (2) chemical and physical 
combinations, readjustments, and reorganizations, so far as condi- 
tions permitted them to take place during the compression; and 
(3) the disintegration of radioactive substances, including any 
other changes in atomic constitution that may have taken place, if 
any. ‘These atomic factors may possibly have some relation to the 
extreme stresses that arose from compressional action, but as 
