Mystery Of The Earth S Mantle

Boiling liquid magma or super hard matter? Inconceivably high temperatures or cold neighboring on absolute zero? What are the depths of the Earth like? What mysteries does its mantle conceal? Science cannot as yet give the exact answers to these questions, though myriads of different hypotheses have been put forth.This is a fascinating book about the romance of prospecting, about the pertinacious investigations of geologists studying the inside of our planet. The author, Professor Anatoly Malakhov, D.Sc. (Geology and Mineralogy) was well known to the Soviet reading public for his previous popular-science books A Hundred Professions of a Geologist and Stories about Stones.

Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.