Structure and composition of terrestrial crust in relation to problems of geological petrology
The geophysical evidence, including the physical mechanical data on rocks and minerals, proves insufficient for justification of currently popular ideas on the discrete character of “the crust” vs “the upper mantle,” the two types (“oceanic” and “continental”) of the crust, and the meaning of the Mohorovicic “boundary,” not to mention an abundance of other misconceptions. The terrestrial crust, mosaic in composition, is petrologically the same under oceans as under continents, notwithstanding geophysical differences between its “oceanic” and “continental” profiles. These differences are explainable by effects of pressure and temperature on geophysical images of the profiles, as well as by space-time positions of the crustal segments they represent.