Introduction

Abstract

In ancient times it was believed that in the center of the earth there was a fire, which would break through the crust here and there and would send a visible messanger in the form of lave from the depths of the earth. This belief in a central fire was continued throughout the middle ages. Not until Descartes [6] was the development of the earth considered from the standpoint of mechanics. He compared the earth with the stars and tried to deduce from this the earth’s development, giving light to the present condition of the earth’s interior. Leibniz [18] thought that the center of the earth was a hot molten mass and the crust was formed during the cooling process. Newton [21] considered the shape of the earth, namely a flattened spheroid rotating about its axis, to be a direct proof of the development of the earth from a hot molten mass. Following Newton’s time there were many attempts to link the history of the earth with surface features.