1 Contributions of Albert Einstein to Earth Sciences
1 Contributions of Albert Einstein to Earth Sciences: A review in Commemoration 2 of the W orld Year of Physics 3 4 Jesús Martínez-Frías1, David Hochberg1 and Fernando Rull1,2 5 6 1 Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC/INTA), associated to the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Ctra de 7 Ajalvir, km 4, 28850 Torrejon de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain, Tel: +34-91-5201111, Fax: +34-91- 8 5201621, e-mail: martinezfrias@ mncn.csic.es 9 2 Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Facultad de Ciencias and Unidad Asociada al Centro de 10 Astrobiologia, Universidad de ValladolidœCSIC, 47006 Valladolid, Spain 11 Abstract 12 The W orld Year of Physics (2005) is an international celebration to commemorate the 13 100th anniversary of Einstein's "Annus Mirabilis". The United Nations has officially 14 declared 2005 the International Year of Physics. However, the impact of Einstein´s 15 ideas was not restricted to physics. Among numerous other disciplines, Einstein also 16 made significant and specific contributions to Earth Sciences. His geosciences-related 17 letters, comments, and scientific articles, are dispersed, not easily accessible and are 18 poorly known. The present review attempts to integrate them, as a tribute to Einstein in 19 commemoration of this centenary. These contributions can be classified into three basic 20 areas: geodynamics, geological (planetary) catastrophism and fluvial geomorphology. 21 Regarding geodynamics, Einstein essentially supported Hapgood‘s very controversial 22 theory called Earth Crust Displacement. W ith respect to geological (planetary) 23 catastrophism, it is shown how the ideas of Einstein about Velikovsky‘s proposals 24 evolved from 1946 to 1955. Finally, in relation with fluvial geodynamics, the review 25 incorporates the elegant work in which Einstein explains the formation of meandering 26 rivers.
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