Historical Geology
Cód:
491_9781443721745
HISTORICAL GEOLOGY by RAYMOND C. MOORE. Originally published in PREFACE: Earth history is a subject of fascinating interest and also of much practical value. The various features of the earth, the continents and oceans, the mountains and plains, and the multitudinous assemblage of organisms in the waters, on land, and in the air have not always been as they are today. The orderly succession of rock strata and their innumer able contained relics of strange animals and plants were not made to mystify man, nor were the ores of metals, deposits of petroleum, and other useful earth materials hidden away merely to test mans ingenuity in finding them. Rather, all of these things are the product of events and conditions in the past history of our planet. To know something of the probable conditions of earth origin, the almost inconceivable antiquity of the earth, the evolution of the continents, the elevation and oblitera tion of great mountain chains, and the remarkable record of life on the earth in past ages is to grow in understanding and appreciation of the modern world. And to acquire such appreciation is in itself a worthy end of study. The student of historical geology, moreover, finds in this subject special opportunity for training in clear thinking, in the scientific con sideration of numerous complex problems, and in reasoning from evi dences or effects to the causes that produced them. An account of earth history that narrated accurately the changing conditions and events of past geologic time, but largely omits the basic observations on which the narrative depends, may hold elements of interest. The instructional value of such an account, however, is surely very far short of one in which many observational data are given and in which emphasis is laid on the deductive interpretation of these data. From the standpoint of scientific training, the means of arriving at conclusions concerning earth history are much more important than the conclusions themselves. Wit
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