Earth Features and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Geology for the Student and the General ReaderHobbs, William Herbert
Science
Earth Features and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Geology for the Student and the General Reader
Hobbs, William Herbert
Geology; Physical geography
=Subdivisions of geology.=—The terms “cosmic geology” and “astronomic
geology” have sometimes been used to cover the astronomy of the earth
planet. The later earth history develops, among other things, the
varied forms of animal and vegetable life which have had a definite
order of appearance. Their study is to a large extent zoölogy and
botany, though here considered from an essentially different viewpoint.
This subdivision of our science is called paleontological geology or
paleontology, which in common usage includes the plant as well as the
animal world, or what is sometimes called paleobotany. In order to fix
the order of events in geological history, these biological studies
are necessary, for the pages of the record have many of them been
misplaced as a result of the vicissitudes of earth history, and the
remains of life in the rock layers supply a pagination from which it is
possible to correctly rearrange the misplaced pages. As compiled into a
consecutive history of the earth since life appeared upon it, we have
the division of historical geology; though this differs but little from
stratigraphical geology, the emphasis in the case of the former being
placed on the history itself and in the latter upon the arrangement of
events—the pagination of the record.
So far as they are known to us, the materials of which the earth is
composed are minerals grouped into various characteristic aggregates
known as rocks. Here the science is founded upon mineralogy as well as
chemistry, and a study of the rock materials of the earth is designated
petrographical geology or petrography. The various rocks which enter
into the composition of the earth’s outer shell—the only portion known
to us from direct observation—are built into it in an architecture
which, when carefully studied, discloses important events in the
earth’s history. The division of the science which is concerned with
earth architecture is geotectonic or structural geology.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account