History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back THE HISTORY OF THE IDEAS ABOUT THE LAW OF THE E A R T H S C O N T I N E N T S AUTONOMOUS GEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT A.M. Zhirnov The history of the knowledge of the nature of Earth’s continents on a geographical study of their research (XVIII century) and in the period of active geological and geophysical studies in the ХIХ–ХХ centuries is examined. Summary of the data and materials synthesis geography, geology, geochemistry, geophysics, geodynamics of the Earth's core, astronomy over the last 10 years allowed to formulate and justify the law of the autonomous geological development of the Earth’s continents. The geological history of Earth began with the formation of the continental crust of basaltic composition, in deep hollows (destructive sites) on the surface of the Earth's mantle 4.4 billion. ago. This crust, together with the later emerged granite-gneiss layer, and was the foundation of the modern continents, 80 % of their volume. Continents actively developed and later, up to modern times, in the primordial, but a fi xed position. The rest of the surface of the globe (about 50 %) initially crystallized in the form of peridotite crust - hidden long ago, in the Mesozoic, under the cover of young basalts and waters of the World Ocean. Keywords: history of ideas; Proto-Earth; explosive disintegration; Earth’s continents; consolidated basement; oceanic crust. Contacts: E-mail: zhantmich@yandex.ru Pp. 072-083.