Word: earth
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Fossil Magnetism. The earth has a powerful magnetic field, but no one knows what creates it. In hope of finding out, the Carnegie scientists studied the magnetism in ancient sedimentary rocks...
When silt sinks slowly to the bottom of an ocean or lake, the magnetic particles in it line up with the earth's magnetic field like tiny compass needles. When the silt hardens into rock, the magnetic particles are "frozen" so that they cannot move. The Carnegie scientists found that even when the rock layer is folded by geological forces, the magnetic particles keep their alignment, pointing accurately around the curves of the folds. Even in layers known to be 200 million years old, the rock keeps its magnetism...
...rock samples 10 million to 100 million years old which they took from flat-lying strata in the western U.S. proved to have a magnetism pointing in about the same direction as present-day compass needles. The conclusion was that when the rocks were laid down as silt, the earth's magnetic field was about as it is today...
...Carnegie scientists were cautious about jumping to conclusions. But at least two conclusions are possible: 1) that the earth's magnetic field has shifted radically since 200 million years ago, or 2) that the North American continent, including Maryland, was once near the south pole and has since drifted slowly to its present position...
...movie opens with a long shot of the earth whirling in space, and the voice of Creator DeMille himself intoning a speech that begins: "Before the dawn of history, ever since the first man discovered his soul . . ." To meet the challenge of building from there, DeMille brings on a seven-day saturnalia in the fleshpots of Timnath; Delilah Lamarr slinking through ten changes of scanty costumes; Samson Mature strangling a lion with his bare hands, killing 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, and pulling the temple down about the ears of the whole company...