On the Action of Ocean-currents in the Formation of the Strata of the Earth

Abstract

In the year 1834 the author communicated to the Society a paper on the Temple of Serapis, at Puzzuoli, near Naples, in the concluding portion of which paper he suggested an explanation of the fact that certain portions of the earth's surface are subject to periodical alternations of elevation and depression, extending through vast periods of time: and the extreme slowness with which certain very fine powders of a heavy substance (emery) subside in water, suggested to the author the vast extent to which very finely divided matter suspended by the Gulf Stream might be spread over the bottom of the Atlantic,—a subject alluded to by him in 1832 in the ‘Economy of Manufactures.’ Some years afterwards, looking for better explanations of the phænomena of outliers and the folding and inversion of strata than he had hitherto met with, Mr. Babbage reverted to the consideration of sedimentary deposition. Hence the origin of the present communication. In the first part of this paper the author traced out the laws which regulate the distribution of very finely divided earthy matter, borne outwards from river-mouths and sea-cliffs into the ocean-currents, over extensive areas. The time that a particle of matter requires to fall through a given distance in a resisting medium depends— 1st. On the specific gravity of the particle itself. 2nd. On its greater or less magnitude. 3rd. On its form. 4th. On the law of the resistance of the medium through which it falls.