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

THEMOUNTAINS 97
see, fractures in areas moving poleward would tend to open
from the top. These might be less likely to reach sources of
molten rock; accordingly, they are not shown filled up.
Whether these fractures would or would not fill up (and
perhaps the probabilities are that they would), the configuration
of the resulting solidified veins in the rocks would be
very different from that in fractures that had opened from
the bottom. Campbell has suggested that this way of explaining
existing fracture patterns in the crust could be an aid
in prospecting for ores, most of which occur in such veins.
It would be a question of ascertaining, for the general region,
whether the veins being investigated were part of either a
poleward type or equatorward type of pattern, and from this
it might be possible to deduce whether the vein was to peter
out or not. Campbell believes that the hypothesis provides
numerous possibilities for the exploration of the crust, some
of which may prove eventually to be of commercial value.
The time element is essential to visualizing the general
process of a displacement. Some concept of the probable
speed of the displacement is required. A basis for such an
estimate is provided by evidence that will be fully considered
later, but I may here anticipate by saying that displacements
may have required periods of from 10,000 to 20,000 years.
This means that this amount of time would be available for
the creation of the system of fractures we are considering. It
means, for example, that a single major fracture, which might
involve, let us say, the pulling apart of the crust to a distance
of several miles and the filling up of the crack with molten
material from below, might be formed over a period of
several thousand years, during which time there might be
spasmodically renewed earthquake fracturing and volcanic
effects, interrupted by periods of quiet. It is obvious that the
amount of time available for the work of extension and fracturing
of the crust is sufficient to permit the process to complete
itself without undue or incredible violence.
We must now consider a question that relates to mountain
building, and at the same time involves another of the major