Über die Kräfte bei der Bildung der Erdkruste

Summary

In reviewing the theories of the formation of the earth, we miss a unifying force that keeps the mechanism in movement. Isostasy, contraction, radioactivity alone are not sufficient, in as much as additional “cosmic” forces must be called to help. In developing further the theory of the sub-surface streamings, we have gone into the effect of the oceanic cold floors. A part of the cooling process that maintains equilibrium with the solar radiation is displaced through the sinking of the cold water to the bottom of the sea. The cooled and therefore heavier bottom presses upon the adjacent fluid zone and produces a sub-surface streaming of the solid lands which are thus raised up, especially at their edges. The denudation of the solid land carries the thrown-up masses back again into the sea, and thus arises a compression of the outer shell that furthers the process already begun and maintains it in a circulatory form. — The rhythmical character of the earth's history can be explained from the interruptions that this circulatory process has suffered through physical discontinuities.