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On Rhythms in the History of the Earth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

J. H. F. Umbgrove
J. H. F. Umbgrove
Affiliation:
Delft, Holland.
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Extract

Two publications by Grabau, which will be treated in the following pages, have led to the ensuing considerations.

In his opinion world-wide advance and retreat of the sea are simply explained by vertical movements of the sea-level. About the possible cause of these movements he makes some very brief remarks, as we shall see later. It is, however, quite possible that the explanation must be sought in simultaneous but opposed movement of continents and sea-level. In trying to obtain an insight into the cause of these movements, rhythms of an entirely different sort come up for discussion, viz. phases of diastrophism and magmatic cycles. And then a further question presents itself: can these different phenomena be connected, and thus give an insight into certain rhythmical processes in the deeper parts of the earth ? I, personally, am convinced that we must answer this question in the affirmative. Stille, Joly, Holmes, and Bucher have reached a similar conclusion by different ways. Meanwhile, the following pages are only intended to shed some light on the different aspects of the problem, and I shall restrict myself to outlining the questions that demand further study.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , March 1939 , pp. 116 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1939

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References

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page 124 note 4 I wish to mention that this point of view was specially brought to the fore by Dr. Kuenen in a discussion I had with him on this subject.

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page 127 note 2 A typical example is furnished by the folded chains of South Africa, the Falkland Islands, and Buenos Aires. Their principal orogenic epoch is in the Triassic, not known of any other range of mountains.

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page 129 note 5 Viz. the Subhercvnian phase.