The chemical, physical and physicochemical processes that are at work in the depths of the Earth, both connected and unconnected with man's activities and coupled to the relevant properties and characteristics of the rocks, began to be intensively studied in the early decades of the present century. Until then little evidence had been available concerning the physical and physicochemical properties of rocks, and the data that existed were one-sided and uncoordinated. Both in this country and elsewhere an interest in investigating natural processes, the processes taking place in rocks, and the...