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

THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH 169
as winter in western Siberia, and so stormy that every particle of
snow blows away; where the summer, even in the low latitudes
where we were, is as cold as near the North Pole, and is, moreover,
such that snowdrifts and glaciers increase during the warmest season
of the year (335- 253-54)-
Nordenskjold's camp,
where he took these observations,
was, apparently, about 64 S. Lat., or more than a thousand
miles from the pole.
From this account it is evident that while a little melting
may occur from time to time in Antarctica (and some has
been recently reported), such melting must be entirely in-
consequential. As to the quantity of precipitation over the
whole continent, the following considerations seem important.
First, the low temperature means a comparative lack of
humidity in the air; precipitation could not equal that in
temperate or tropical regions, for cold air will not hold as
much moisture as warm air. Second, wind pattern and topography
are both important factors. The wind is pattern as
follows: There are winds blowing toward the pole at high
elevations; these have, of course, crossed oceans on their way
to the pole, and have picked up moisture. As they approach
the pole they are compressed and chilled, and they contract
and lose moisture in the form of snow. The air, now having
greater density, sinks to the ice surface and moves outward in
anticyclonic pattern. Winds blow outward in all directions
from the pole, bearing with them great quantities of snow.
Much of the snow is borne out to sea, but much is deposited
in every nook and cranny, in all declivities, and, from the
beginning of the growth of the icecap, the fringing coastal
mountain chains have aided in the storage of snow. They do
not prevent the high-altitude winds, bearing their moisture,
from entering the continent, but they do, naturally, interfere
to some extent with the outward-flowing, low-altitude winds,
forcing them to deposit snow.
Now, these conditions have naturally been the same since
the beginning of the growth of this continental icecap, and
they must have prevailed with the previous icecaps. But we