The Face of the Earth (Das Antlitz der Erde) by Eduard Suess

THE FACE OF THE EARTH

(DAS ANTLITZ DER ERDE)

BY

EDUARD SUESS

Professor of Geology in the University of Vienna
Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London

Translated by

Hertha B. C. Sollas

Ph. D. Heidelberg; of Newnham College, Cambridge

under the direction of

W. J. Sollas

Sc. D. (Cantab.), LL. D. (Dublin), M.A. (Oxon.), F.R.S.
Fellow of University College, Oxford
Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford

VOL. I

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1904

This electronic edition prepared by Dr. David C. Bossard
from original documents in his personal library.

December, 2005.

CONTENTS.

Preface by the Author iii iv v vi vii

Introduction 1 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016

Wedge-like form of the continents. Great depth of the oceans. Difference between the Pacific and the Atlantic regions. Subsidence. 'What is a geological formation?' Cycles of development. The stratigraphical terminology of Europe applicable to the whole world. Extent of transgressions. Independence of ancient coast-lines and mountain structure. Contents of the following parts.

[001] If we imagine an observer to approach our planet from outer space, and, pushing aside the belts of red-brown clouds which obscure our atmosphere, to gaze for a whole day on the surface of the earth as it rotates beneath him, the feature beyond all others most likely to arrest his attention would be the wedge-like outlines of the continents as they narrow away to the South. ...

Such forms must have been determined by the structure of the outer parts of the planet itself. Our observer would have no doubt on this point, if, as he had previously pushed aside the clouds, he were now to remove the sea, so that he could gaze directly on the rocky crust of the globe thus laid bare. The remarkable depth of the ocean basins as opposed to the trifling height of the continents, and the steep slope of a great part of the coasts, would then become apparent to him.

[006] The mightiest mountain chains of the earth are themselves only subordinate members of far greater structural features which dominate the whole globe.

[011] More than forty years have passed since the publication of Darwin's book.... The continuity of life is more and more clearly illustrated by the results of Palaeontology; yet the fact remains that we do not find species varying gradually within the limits of single families or genera, and at different times, but that whole groups, entire animal and vegetable populations, or, if I may so express myself, complete economic unities of Nature appear together, and together disappear.

PART I
The Movements in the Outer Crust of the Earth

Chapter I. The Deluge 17 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 068 069 070 071 072

Oceanic floods. In the biblical story two accounts combined. Berosus: the Izdubar epic. Locality. Use of Asphalt. Warnings. The catastrophe. Stranding. Conclusion of the event. More recent events in the lower courses of the rivers of India. Indus. rann of Cutch. Ganges and Brahmaputra. Cyclones. Nature and extent of the Deluge. Classification of accounts. Berosus and Izdubar epic. Biblical accounts. Egypt. Hellenic-Syrian group. India. China. Conclusion.

Chapter II. Some Seismic Areas. 73 073 074 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

Various branches of research. The north-eastern Alps. South Italy. The continent of Central America. Alleged spasmodic elevation of Chili. Rebounding of objects. Movement of submarine sediment. Valparaiso, 1822. Concepcion, 1835. Valdivia, 1837. Elevation of the land not proved.

Chapter III. Dislocations 106 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143

Resolution of stresses. Dislocation by tangential movement. Folding. Imbricated structure. Overthrusts or Wechsel. Dislocation on flaw (Blatt) planes. Torsion. Dislocation by radial movement. Subsidence on a yielding base. Flexures and faults. Networks of fracture. Caldron subsidences. Dislocation by combined radial and tangential movement. Backfolding and squeezing in. Forefolding.

Chapter IV. Volcanos. 144 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172

Stages of denudation. Vesuvius and Monte Nuovo. Monte Venda. Laccolites. Palandocan and Dary-dagh. The Whin Sill. The Hebrides. Predazzo. The Fissure of the Banat. Syenite cicatrice of Brünn. Elk mountains and the Harz. Batholites; Drammen granite; Vosges; Erzgebirge. Maculae. Invagination. The denudation series.

Chapter V. Diversity of the Movements. 173 173 174 175 176 177 178 179

Attempts to classify earthquakes. Earthquakes of volcanic origin, and those caused by dislocation. Earthquakes associated with flaws. Earthquakes associated with over-riding. Earthquakes caused by subsidence. Aetna, 1780, and 1874 to 1883. Different nature of volcanic earthquakes. The denudation series

PART II
The Mountain Ranges of the Earth

Chapter I. The Northern Foreland of the Alpine System. 180 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215

The Russian Platform. The Sudetes. The Franconian-Swabian area of subsidence. Ries and Höhgau. The horsts. Quartz dykes in the horsts. Zigzag outlines. Jurassic relicts of the Sudetes. Relation of the Alpine system to its foreland.

Chapter II. The Trend-lines of the Alpine system. 216 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 23

The northern border of the Alps and the Carpathians. Local overthrusting of the outer border. Curvature of the extremity of the Carpathians. Curvature of the mountains of Western Transylvania. Curvature of the Apennines. Sicily. Mountains of North Africa. Gibraltar. The Betic Cordillera. Spiral arrangement of the trend-lines.

Chapter III. The Basin of te Adriatic. 236 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276

Significance of the Adamello. The Judicarian line. Fractures of the Cima d' Asta. Region between the Judicaria and the fracture of Schio. Dislocations on the north of the fractures of the Cima d' Asta. Fractures of the Drau and the Gail. Dinaric fractures or fractures of the Karst. Recent extension of the Adriatic sea. Summary.

Chapter IV. The Mediterranean. 277 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355

Five historical phases of unequal value. Relations to America. The Atlantic Ocean. Guadalquivir, Gironde, Rhone. First Mediterranean stage. The Schlier. Second Mediterranean stage. The Sarmatian inland sea. The Pontic lakes. More recent times. Northern immigrants. The latest subsidences. Summary.

Chapter V. The Great Deseert Plateau. 356 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386

The Sahara and Egypt. South Arabia and Abyssinia. Sinai, Syria, and north Arabia. Suez and the Nile.

Chapter VI. The Fragments of the Indian Continent. 387 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420

South Africa. The East Indian peninsula. Madagascar. Summary.

Chapter VII. The Syntaxis of the Mountains of India. 421 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462

The exterior chains of Iran. The Salt range. The Tertiary chains. The western Himalaya. Mustágh and Kuen-luen. Hindu Kush and Púmir. The eastern Himalaya. Burma, Malacca, Sumatra. Summary.

Chapter VIII. The Relation of the Alps to the Mountains of Asia. 463 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507

The object of this chapter. Thian-shan by J. Muschketoff. Western branches of the Thianshan. Nuru-tau, Scheich-Djeli, Mangischlik, Coal-field of the Donetz. Paropamisus, Khorassan, Kopet-dagh, Balkan, Caucasus, Crimea. Matschin. Balkans and Carpathians. Albourz, Iranian-Tauric syntaxis. Dinaric chain. Explanation of the vortical arrangement of the Alps. Ural, Pae-khoi, and Timan. Summary.

Chapter IX. South America. 508 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541

The Argentine chains. The Andes of Bolivia and Chili. The coast Cordilleras and Patagonia. Peru. Ecuador. North Granada and Venezuela. Summary.

Chapter X. The Antilles. 542 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552

The three series of islands. Cuba. Haiti. Jamaica. Puerto Rico to Barbados. The Cordillera of the Antilles. Comparison with the border of the western Mediterranean. Earthquakes.

Chapter XI. North America. 553 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592

The foldings in the east.. Prairies and Black hills. Division of the mountain ranges of the west. Rocky mountains. Uinta mountains. Wahsatch and mountain chains on the Snake river. Colorado plateau. The table-land of Utah and the grand canyon of Colorado. Basin ranges. Sierra Nevada. The Coast Cordilleras and lower California. The west of Canada. Summary.

Chapter XII. The Continents. 593 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604

These expressions untenable. Age of the continents. America. Separation of Indo-Africa and Eurasia. Folding of Eurasia. The Han-hai and the depression of Turkestan. The Mediterranean seas. The Indian Ocean. The great units. Multiformity of the mountains. Collapse of the lithosphere.

ILLUSTRATIONS

NOTE: High resolution images (400 ppi) of the text illustrations are available here.

1. Fissures and Funnel-shaped Apertures produced by the
        Earthquake of Cachar on January 10, 1869 51
2. The Path of some Indian Cyclones 54
3. Recent Earthquakes in the North-east of the Alps and West of the Carpathians 78
4. The Peripheral Line of the Lipari Islands 83
5. The Western Part of the Volcanos of Central America 93
6. Scene of the Earthquake of February 20, 1835 99
7. Folded Menilite Shales. Wolfsgraben near Nikolschitz, Moravia 108
8. Reversed Fold on the Summit of the Mamrang Pass, Himalaya 109
9. Summit of the Gstelli-Horn, Mass of the Finster-Aarhorn, seen from the Laucherli 110
10. The Botzberg Tunnel 113
11. The Habsburg 114
12. The System of Fractures of St. Andreasberg 123
13. The Faults of the High Plateaux of Utah 130
14. Stereogram of a Part of the 'Musinia Zone of Diverse Displacement' 132
15. Prattigau and Rhaeticon 140
16. Foot of the Heiigenstein at the Hohe-Wand near Wiener-Neustadt (Lower Austria) 141
17. Disturbances in the Belgian Coal-fields 142
18. The Mount Hillers Group of Laccolites   150
19. The Volcanos of the Inner Hebrides 156
20. Predazzo (South Tyrol) 158
21. The Volcanic Line of the Banat 162
22. Sections to correspond to Fig. 23 164
23. Arrangement of the Lowest Parts of the Cretaceous Formation around
        Snow Mass and White Rock in the Elk Mountains 165
24. The Foreland of the Western Carpathians. 186
25. The Foreland of the Eastern Carpathians 187
26. Diagram of the Trend-lines of the Alpine System 232
27. Monte Doja. Mass of the Re di Castello 239
28. Cima delle Casinelle. (South Part of the Adamello Mass.) 241
29. Approximate Arrangement of the Principal Fractures and Flexures
        which surround the Cima d' Asta 245
30. Seilspitz, Ascent to the Penserjoch (West of the Brenner Road) 247
31. Trias Limestone overthrust by Phyllite, in the Limestone Wedge of the Seilspitz 248
32. Entrance to the Gorge of Torrente Maso, South Side of the Cima d' Asta 250
33. The Torrente Silano (Val Rovina) entering the Plain (West of the Brenta) 252
34. Castles of the Montagues and Capulets to the West of Vicenza 257
85. Northern Border of the Palaeozoic Zone to the South of Hermagor 265
36. South Side of the Palaeozoic Zone South of Hermagor 266
37. The Tertiary Deposits on the North Side of the Gulf of Mexico 284
38. Suderöe, the most southerly of the Faeröe Islands 287
39. The Trough-subsidence of Malta and Gozzo 348
40. View of the Fault of Malak on the South Coast of the Island of Malta 349
41. Sketch-map showing the Distribution of the Formations in the Desert of Sahara 360
42. Morbat on the South Coast of Arabia 365
43. Jebel Atáqa near Suez 371
44. South Africa 388
45. The Salt Range near Kálabágh 430
46. View of the Silakank 437
47. Diagram of the Trend-lines of the Carpathians and the Balkans 480
48. The Curvature of the Strike on the Lower Danube 482

PLATES

Plate	Click for plate at 100 ppi	DESCRIPTION
I	Plate at 200 ppi	Folding of Strata on one Side of a Tributary to the Bambadhura Glacier, Lissar Valley, Dharma Valley, Kumann
II	Plate at 200 ppi	Lago di Campo and Passo della Forceffina, Adamello, South Tyrol
III	Plate at 200 ppi	The System of the Alps
IV	Plate at 200 ppi	The Syntaxis at the Foot of the Hindu Kush and the Himalaya
V	Plate at 200 ppi	The Relation of Europe to Asia
VI	Plate at 200 ppi	The Virgation of the Rocky Mountains