The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

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EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
real events would not correspond to this. The crust would
be under bursting stress, and this would be relieved spasmodically,
during the movement of the crust, by fractures at
the weakest points. A fracture through the crust at one point
would relieve the stress for perhaps hundreds of miles. Since
the elasticity of the crust is slight, the stretching or extension
of the crust would consist of the drawing apart, to varying
distances, of the fractured blocks. Generally speaking, the
fewer the fractures, the farther their sides would draw apart.
It would be possible that the total amount of the stretching
of the earth's circumference would be concentrated in rela-
tively few critical areas.
It must also be kept in mind that some parts of this area
being displaced toward the equator will be displaced farther
than others. The greatest displacement will occur along the
line, or meridian, drawn from the pole through the center of
mass of the icecap and so around the earth; or, if any unex-
pected factor should deflect the direction of the movement,
the greatest displacement will occur along whatever meridian
represents the direction of the movement. As I have pointed
out, at two pivot points on the equator 90 degrees away from
this meridian there will be little or no movement, and the
points in between will move proportionately to their distances
from the meridian. The tension, or stretching, will be
proportional to the amount of displacement. It therefore will
be greatest along the central meridian of movement, and it
is here that Mr. Campbell expects the first major fractures
of the crust to develop.
It is important to visualize the nature of the crust on which
this tension is exerted. The crust is comparatively rigid, hav-
ing little elasticity, but it is not strong. It varies in thickness
and strength from place to place. As we shall see, it is even
now penetrated by great systems of deep fractures of unex-
plained origin. These inequalities of strength will be very
important in determining the reactions of the crust from
place to place to the tension exerted upon it; they
will de-