Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2016
There appears to be an overwhelming urge in the study of earth sciences currently to discover the “cosmic generality.” Certainly, no observational and descriptive aspects of the study of earth history can be concluded until one has placed the observations into a broader context. On the other hand, there are not very many “cosmic generalities” and few lasting generalizations have been developed before the basic data have been gathered. When generalizations do precede observations, the former fall into the category of testable hypotheses or speculations, depending upon the overall plausibility of the ideas and the generosity of the reader.