This relationship between the parallels must be taken into account for all the envelopes of the Earth, and not just for the lithosphere. In other words, each of the terrestrial envelopes, solid, liquid, and gaseous, represents a definite structure (or rather a complex combination of several structures), produced under the conditions of terrestrial rotation and existing as a direct result of this rotation. Under the rotation condi tions, in accordance with the effect of gravity, both the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, like the lithosphere, prove to be definite megastructures; they have a complex structural makeup, rather than being just air and water*.
Actually, this follows from the last chapters of my aforementioned book, in which it was noted that the same critical parallels exist in the atmosphere and hydrosphere as on the solid surface of the Earth corres ponding to the lithosphere. The meridional zonal slanting , whose existence for the solid envelope of the Earth was pointed out by Stovas, must also be observed for the air envelope and the water envelope of the Earth. Under the conditions of terrestrial rotation, water cannot travel freely from the pole to the equator and vice versa. Along the way, the water will be affected by the 35th parallel and in fact will be stopped at it. Up to the 35th parallel it will have one kind of motion, and after this parallel it will have another kind. It is no accident that the maximum water density in the oceans is along the 35th parallel. Nor is it an accident that regions of constant wind ("the roaring latitudes") exist in the atmos phere on either side of the 35th parallel.
Obviously, a definite figure of the Earth applies to the solid envelope of the planet as well as to the oceans. Moreover, the figure would be the same if there were no oceans, since then the dry land itself would compensate for the lack of the water and the oceanless Earth would still be ellipsoidal in shape. Since the oceans do exist, however, they are an inherent constituent part of the Earth's structure, and this is why the oceans complement the continents so exactly in the body of the Earth (and thus in the structure of the planet as well). On the basis of this, we may conclude that, in particular, the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere) must have a definite planetary figure. The troposphere contains a subtropical high-pressure zone, an equatorial region of low pressure, and finally the polar zones and anticyclone zones of the Arctic and Antarctic. Each of these tropospheric zones has an analogue in the
lithosphere.
Let us assume that each envelope of the Earth, solid, liquid, or gaseous, consists of masses of matter which are present in the different envelopes in different states. Then, invoking the previous important first-order regularity which states that the envelopes are made up of structures, we are justified in saying that: these structures are masses of matter in different states. Zonality of the structures is, therefore, a phenomenon which is inherent to the masses making up t he envelope. If this is taken into account, it follows that the available heat must also exert an influence on the masses of the envelopes, apart from and in addition to (but only in addition to!) the rotation. This heat may be radioactive heat in the body of the planet and also heat transmitted to the planet by the Sun through the planetary rock mass (during subsidence of the silicates and carbonaceous rocks). It is very characteristic that the masses of the troposphere and the oceanic envelope have a definite structure, as do the masses of the solid lithosphere, and this fact must be taken into consideration.
Not long ago (1956) Pariiskii contradicted Stovas by pointing out that it is impossible to assume a single rule of critical parallels for the solid Earth and the Sun, since matter on the Sun is in a fluid state. On the other hand, if the atmosphere and hydrosphere of the Earth are not simply large masses, but rather are law-abiding gaseous and liquid parts of structures, then the fluid matter on the Sun, with its regular latitudinal belts, must have a definite structure as well. Thus, there is a definite rule of latitudi nal zonality which applies to all the heavenly bodies, planets and stars alike.
All three outer envelopes of the Earth, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere, have the same pattern of latitudinal zonality. This second-order regularity follows from the previously stated first-order regularity. It becomes obvious if we assume that the basic condition for the conformity of all three envelopes is the rotation of the Earth, a certain additional role being played by heat.