Geophysical Abstracts 184 January-March 1961
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Geophysical Abstracts 184 January-March 1961 By JAMES W. CLARKE, DOROTHY B. VITALIANO, VIRGINIA S. NEUSCHEL, and others GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1146-A Abstracts of current literature pertaining to the physics of the solid earth and to geophysical exploration UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1961 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Thomas B. Nolan, Director For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printin~ Office, Washin~ton 25, D.C. Price 40 cents (sin~e copy). Subscription price: $1.75 a year; 50 cents additional for foreign mailin~. Use of funds for printin~ this publication has been approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Bud~et (June 23, 1960). CONTENTS Page Introduction --------------------------------------------------- 1 Extent of coverage------------------------------------------ 1 List of journals -------------------------------------------- 1 Form of citation-------------------------------------------- 2 Abstracters------------------------------------------------ 2 Age determinations -------------------------------------------- 2 Cosmogony---------------------------------------------------- 23 Earth currents ------------------------------------------------ 34 Earthquakes and earthquake waves------------------------------- 37 Elasticity----------------------------------------------------- 59 Electrical exploration ------------------------------------------ 71 Electrical logging---------------------------------------------- 79 Exploration summaries and statistics ---------------------------- 82 General------------------------------------------------------- 85 Geodesy------------------------------------------------------- 88 Geotectonics -------------------------------------------------- 91 Glaciers ------------------------------------------------------ 96 Gravity ------------------------------------------------------- 97 Heat and heat flow --------------------------------------------- 107 Internal constitution of the earth--------------------------------- 110 Isotope geology------------------------------------------------ 117 Magnetic field of the earth -------------------------------------- 121 Magnetic properties and paleomagnetism ------------------------- 128 Magnetic surveys ---------------------------------------------- 132 Microseisms -------------------------------------------------- 135 Radioactivity -------------------------------------------------- 136 Radioactivity surveying and logging ------------------------------ 140 Seismic exploration -------------------------------------------- 143 Strength and plasticity------------------------------------------ 154 Submarine geology --------------------------------------------- 156 Volcanology --------------------------------------------------- 158 Index --------------------------------------------------------- 163 III GEOPHYSICAL ABSTRACTS 184, JANUARY-MARCH 1961 By James W. Clarke, Dorothy B. Vitaliano, Virginia S. Neuschel, and others INTRODUCTION Extent of Coverage Geophysical Abstracts includes abstracts of technical papers and books on the physics of the solid earth, the application of physical methods and tech niques to geologic problems, and geophysical exploration. The table of con tents, which is alphabetically arranged, shows the material covered. Abstracts are prepared only of material that is believed to be generally a vailable. Ordinarily abstracts are not published of material with limited cir culations (such as dissertations, open-file reports, or memorandums) or of other papers presented orally at meetings. Abstracts of papers in Japanese and Chinese are based on abstracts or summaries in a western language ac companying the paper. List of J burnais Lists of journals published in Geophysical Abstracts 160 (January-March 1955, Bulletin 1033 -A) and subsequent issues through 175 (October-December 1958, Bulletin 1086-D) have been compiled into a single list, which may be obtained by writing to the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington 25, D. C. Supplements to this master list have been published in each issue since Geophysical Abstracts 175. The following is an additional supplement that lists references cited in Geophysical Abstracts 184 that have not been listed previously. Arizona Geol. Soc. Digest-Arizona Geological Society Digest. Tucson, Ari zona. Geog. Rundschau-Geographische Rundschau [Geographical Review}. Georg Westerman Verlag. Braunschweig, German Federal Republic. Geol. Gesell. Ber. -Berichte der Geologischen Gesellschaft in der deutschen demokratischen Republik fur das gesamtgebiet der geologischen Wissen schaften [Reports of the geological society of the German Democratic Re public for the entire field of geological sciences]. Berlin, German Demo cratic Republic. Hokkaido Univ. Faculty Sci. Jour. -Journal of the Faculty of Science, Hok kaido University. Sapporo, Japan. Impact-Impact of science on society. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Paris, France. Nat. Sci. and Mus. -Natural Science and Museums. National Science Muse um. Tokyo, Japan. Problemy Geokhimii-Problemy Geokhimii [Problems of Geochemistry}. L' vovskiy Gosudarstvennyy Universitet. L'vov, U.S.S.R. Research Appl. Industry-ResearchApplied in Industry. Butterworths Scien tific Publications. London, England. Royal Geol. Soc. Cornwall Trans. -Transactions of the Royal Geological So ciety of Cornwall. Penzance, England. Univ. Indonesia, Inst. Technology Bandung, Dept. Geology Contr. -Contribu tions from the Department of Geology, Institute of Technology Bandung, U niversity of Indonesia. Bandung, Indonesia. Yorkshire Geol. Soc. Proc. -Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. Hull, England. 2 GEOPHYSICAL ABSTRACTS 184, JANUARY-MARCH 1961 Form of Citation The abbreviations of journal titles used are those used in the U.S. Geo logical Survey publications and in many geological journals. For papers in most languages other than English, the title is given in the original language as well as in translation. Slavic names and titles have been transliterated by the system used by the United States Board of Geographic Names. This sys tem of transliterationfor Russian is given in Geophysical Abstracts 148 (Jan uary-March1952,Bulletin 991-A)and in the new "List of Journals" announced above. Titles of papers in Japanese and Chinese are given in translation only. Abstracters Abstracts in this issue have been prepared by H. Faul, A. J. Shneiderov, and J. H. Swartz, as well as by the principal authors. Authors' abstracts are used in many instances. The initials of an abstracter following the notation "Author's abstract" indicates a translation from the original language. AGE DETERMINATIONS 184-1. Wetherill, G[eorge] W. Age of the base of the Cambrian: Nature, v. 187, no. 4731, p. 34-35, 1960. Holmes, Arthur. Age of the base of the Cambrian: ibid, p. 35-36, 1960. Wetherill draws attention to some problems existing in the determination of the base of the Cambrian and shows that the data used by Holmes in estab lishingthe revised date of 600±20 million years, based on absite from pegma tites overlain by the Adelaide series in South Australia and on uraninite from Katanga do not yield a firm maximum age for the base of even the Middle Cam brian. Holmes claims that Wetherill overrates some of the difficulties and exag gerates their geochronological consequences. The provisionally adopted figure of 600±20 million years was a reasonable estimate in the light of evidence then available; it should not be regarded as established fact. Disagreement over interpretation of inconclusive data is of minor significance in view of age de terminations on Lower Cambrian and Upper Cambrian glauconites of some other areas. One particularly valuable set of results is from the relatively undisturbed Russian platform-recalculated using decay constants that cor respond with American and British practice, the value obtained for the Lower Cambrian is 566X1o6 yr and that for the Upper Sinian, separated from it by only a slight unconformity, is 692-701X1o6 yr. -D. B. V. 184-2. Clark, David L. U -Pb age determination and Upper Devonian bio stratigraphy: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 72, no. 1, p. 163- 165, 1961. Physical and biological evidence suggests that the minimum age of the De vonian-Mississippian boundary is about 335-340 million years. The figure of 350 million years of Cobb and Kulp (see Geophys. Abs. 181-28) is not a min imum but a maximum figure for this boundary. As 10-15 million years is within the range of reliability of the uranium-lead sample, this does not rad ically change the significance of the 350-million-year date; it simply empha sizes the importance of biostratigraphic understanding in the application of geochemical dates to the stratigraphic section.- D. B. V. AGE DETERMINATIONS 3 184-3. Tilton, G[eorge] R., and Davis, G. L. Geochronology, in Research es in geochemistry: New York, John Wiley and Sons:P. 190-216, 1959. The accomplishments of geochronology with respect to geological problems are reviewed. The reliability of the isotopic methods of age determination is evaluated briefly, and some new investigations and their application are dis cussed. Particular attention is being given to tracing orogenic belts in time and space in order to evaluate the role of orogenies in the development of the continents. It is concluded that confidence in age determinations is justified when two different methods give the same result for