A guide to field geology / Руководство по полевой геологии

Geologists, also known as Geoscientists, are trying to understand the constitution of the earth. The surficial portion, which is directly visible to the geologists, is made up more of water bodies (the seas, the oceans, and the lakes, together constitute nearly 2/3rds of the entire surface of the earth) than the land masses (Africa, America, Asia etc.). Large area of land around the north and the southpoles, is covered with a thick blanket of ice sheet, throughout the year.The higher peaks of the mountain ranges, are likewise covered by ice. The radius of the earth is 6400 km, but the exposed portion of the earth above the sea level, is a mere 8 km, which is available for the direct observations of the geologists. The deepest mine in the Kolar Gold Fields, Karnataka, India, is just about 3.2 km in depth. Therefore, it becomes inevitable to collect numerous samples of rocks, not only from the different parts of the surface of the earth, but also from depth (mines) too, in order to obtain as true a composition of the crustal rocks, as is possible. <...>