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

V :
CONTINENTS
AND OCEAN BASINS
i. The Central Problem
None of the mysteries of the earth is more baffling than the
question of the origin and history of the continents and ocean
basins. One of the most useful applications of the theory of
crust displacements will be its application here.
As with the problems already considered, there are many
theories that are in violent conflict. The conflict is broad and
deep, and since it involves two or three branches of science,
which have adopted antagonistic points of view, it may even
be called a civil war in science. It is fought over one issue:
whether the present continents and deep ocean basins have
been permanent features of the earth's crust since the forma-
tion of the planet, or whether they have not.
It would take too long to review the history of this war, for
it extends far back into the nineteenth century. Instead, it
will suffice to outline the principal positions adopted by the
antagonists. Before we do this, however, it is essential to
emphasize that most contemporary geologists, knowing the
mystery surrounding these principal features of the earth's
surface, have refrained from making very positive statements.
Professor Daly, for example, after admitting that the forma-
tion of continents could not be accounted for under the
theory of the solidification of the crust from an originally
molten state, remarked that
We are now face to face with a principal mystery of nature. Ac-
tually, the earth's substance is differentiated into the form of continent
overlooking deep ocean basin. That obvious, infinitely important
fact, dry land on a continental scale, has to find its place in any theory
of the earth. The problem is as difficult as it is fundamental. . . .
Daly goes on to say that all he is able to offer on the subject
is a guess, but that any reasonable guess is better than simply