202 T. C CHAMBERLIX — ^iROrXDWORK OF EARTIl's DIASTROPHLSM 



tion was reached at a certain stage, after which there set in a long effort 

 to reach a better balanced distribution, a movement still in progress. 

 Thus, in the growing stages, each partial deformation led on to increased 

 differentiation of the incoming matter, and so laid the foundation for 

 still further diastrophism when these effects turned into causes. In a 

 certain sense, the complex process was cumulative, even though the re- 

 sulting diastrophism, taken by itself, tended toward the equation of 

 stresses and a better balancing of inequalities. 



The peesistext Effects of the deeper DiASTROPHisii 



The earlier deformations were, of course, buried deeper and deeper 

 and made more and more inaccessible as growth went on. It is easy to 

 jump to the conclusion that they thus became inconsequential, so far as 

 the outer diastrophism was concerned; but a little consideration will 

 show that deformation in the depths, however buried, continued to be a 

 potent factor in the diastrophism above, and that of later dates as well. 

 All the earlier distortions gave warped fomidations for all later com- 

 pressions. Thus, in a sense, they transmitted their deformities and weak- 

 nesses to the terranes built on them. Besides this, and more important, 

 the matter in the depths partool- anew in every recurrent stage of self- 

 compression. This was logically inevitable unless the substance reached 

 ,a state of incompressibility, and this notion has become untenable since 

 the compressible nature of even the atoms has been disclosed. But we 

 need not fall back on this, for a comparison of the density of the earth 

 with its neighbors clearly implies that central compression continued to 

 be effective so long as the planet grew.^ After a careful study of the case, 

 it seems safe to say that the high densities of the interior were not orig- 

 inal, nor were they attained at any single stage, but rather by renewed 

 stages of self-compression which affected each inner layer in its due pro- 

 portion. This is clearly implied by the law of increasing density, which 

 is not only theoretically sound, but is supported by the convergent testi- 

 mony of several lines of concrete evidence, in addition to the comparison 

 already cited. 



The Pexetratiox of this basal DiASTROPHisii 



The considerations Just sketched may almost serve as a discussion of 

 the depth of penetration of all such diastrophism as sprang from increase 

 of mass — that is, the basal diastrophism that especially prevailed during 

 the formative stages of the earth. 



* Diastrophism and the formative processes. X, The order of magnitude of the shrink 

 age of the earth deduced from ilars, Venus, and the Moon. Jour, of Geol.. vol. xxviii 

 a920), pp. 1-17. 



