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

THE MOUNTAINS 93
termine the precise locations, and to some extent the pat-
terns, of the fractures that will result.
Without attempting to anticipate a more detailed discus-
sion, to be introduced later, of the forces involved in this
fracturing of the crust, I would like to remark that the forces
required for the fracturing are by no means so great as might
be at first supposed. It is a question of relatively slight forces
exerted over considerable periods of time.
If we disregard the factors that may locally influence the
locations and sizes of fractures, a general pattern may be indi-
cated to which they will tend to conform. Mr. Campbell has
worked out this pattern schematically, and has indicated it in
Figures II, III, and IV. The reader will note that the fractures
take two directions. There are the north-south, or meridional,
fractures, which Mr. Campbell refers to as the major frac-
tures, and then there are minor fractures at right angles to
them.
Mr. Campbell anticipates that numerous major fractures
will occur parallel to each other as the crust moves. The for-
mation of very numerous minor faults at right angles to the
major faults will form a gridiron pattern of fractures. Mr.
Campbell has suggested a method for visualizing the process.
If the reader will cup his hands and place them together,
with fingertips touching and the fingers of each hand close
together (as if they lay on the surface of a sphere), and then
imagine the sphere growing, and causing the fingertips of
both hands to spread apart, and at the same time the fingers
of each hand to spread apart, he may visualize the process.
The gap between his hands will now represent a major frac-
ture, and the gaps between the fingers of each hand will
to it. The reader
represent the minor fractures at right angles
will see, a little later on, how closely this projection of frac-
ture effects corresponds to the real phenomena in the earth's
crust.
Another important aspect of these fractures is shown in
Figure III. Mr. Campbell has indicated that, owing to the
arc of the surface as the crustal sector moves
changing