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

128 EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
as often as is required by this theory, why would not the crust
be universally folded to a far greater extent than it is?
I think this objection has been partly answered where I
pointed out that in a single displacement of the crust the
folding would be comparatively slight, and that it would be
confined to a small part of the earth's entire surface. I have
the meridian of the
suggested that it would be greatest along
crust's maximum displacement, but that at some point be-
tween this meridian and the two areas suffering no displace-
ment, the compressions would tend to fall below the elastic
limit of the crustal rocks, so that the crust would simply bend
elastically, and then return to its original, apparently undisturbed
position, in some subsequent movement. It may be
added that most of the changes of elevation resulting from a
displacement of the crust would tend to be epeirogenic that
is, they would be broad uplifts or subsidences of large regions
resulting from the tilting of great segments of the crust,
rather than merely local deformations of the rock structures.
Another point that may be urged in answer to this objec-
tion is that, apparently, over considerable periods the poles
have tended to be situated again and again in approximately
the same areas, possibly owing to the configuration of the
continents. This would result in leaving some areas far removed
for long periods from the meridian of maximum dis-
placement of the crust.
12. The Chronology of Mountain Building
Another objection that may be raised to this theory of
mountain building is that there are supposed to have been
only a few great mountain-making epochs in the world's history
of two or more billion years, and that these epochs have
been separated by very long periods when mountains were
eroded away, and no new ones made. I shall indicate two
reasons for holding that this concept is an illusion.
The first reason is that the record of the rocks is incom-