ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 81 



liofeii's "Xau-K'oii Series.*" One can well wonder at the tremendous sedi- 

 mentary records on the Asiatic Continent. 



PROBLEM OF MILD GEOLOGICAL CLIMATES 

 BY ELT-S WORTH HUXTIXGTOX 



(Abstract) 



A mild climate, with relatively slight contrasts from latitude to latitude and 

 season to season, appears to have prevailed throughout most of geological 

 times. The solar cyclonic hypothesis, when combined with the distribution of 

 land and sea, appears to offer an adequate explanation. Recent investigations 

 show that the cyclonic circulation which gives rise to the typical storms of 

 temperature latitudes and the hurricanes of lower latitudes is intimately de- 

 pendent upon variations in solar activity. Moreover, an analysis of the rela- 

 tionships of different parts of the sun's disk to barometric conditions over the 

 north Atlantic Ocean and to atmospheric electricity shows a relationship which 

 can not apparently be thermal and which seems to be in harmony with an 

 electrical cause. If this is the case, the sun might be as hot as now, and j'et 

 cyclonic storms of all kinds might be greatly reduced if the sun's atmosphere 

 were relatively undisturbed. In that case, the earth's mean temperature would 

 rise, as it does now at times of few sunspots when storms diminish in number. 

 The chief reason for this would apparently be that far less warm air would 

 be drawn from low latitudes and pushed aloft in the centers of storm areas. 

 At the same time the strength of the normal planetary and continental circu- 

 lations would be increased, because they would suffer less interference from 

 storms. If this happened and if the conformation of the land were such that 

 w^arm currents easilj^ penetrated to high latitudes, there seems to be no good 

 reason why polar regions should not have enjoyed a climate as warm, perhaps, 

 as that of Ireland. 



Presented in full extemporaneously. 



Brief remarks were made by Messrs. Leverett and Coleman. 



FURTHER EXPERIMENTS OX THE FRACTVRIXG OF HOLLOW BRITTLE 

 SPHERES AXD THEIR BEARIXG OX MAJOR DIASTROPHISM 



BY WALTER H. BUCHEB 



(Abstract) 



In a paper read at the Chicago meeting of the Geological Society, the w^riter 

 presented the results of experiments w^hich showed that the pattern of frac- 

 tures which form when hollow spheres of glass and of paraflBn are fractured 

 by the expansion of water freezing in them, is essentially similar to that shown 

 by the Mesozoic geosynclines as reconstructed by Haug. He further showed 

 that it is possible to explain the origin of the major geosynclines on the basis 

 of such subcrustal expansion. 



The purpose of this paper is to present the results of experiments made in 

 the I'hysics Department of the University of Cincinnati bj- Dr. R. C. Gowdy 



VI — Bull. Geol. Soc. A.m., Vol. 34. 1922 



