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

THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH l8l
is a deviation in the shape of the earth from the idealized
form of a flattened, or oblate, spheroid. The increasingly
accurate measurements of geodesy have shown that the earth
has bumps and irregular lumps in various places, which seem
to correspond to a third axis running through the earth. As
a result of this, scientists now consider that the true shape
of the earth is that of a "triaxial ellipsoid."
An axis, of course, is not a material thing. It is only a line
that somebody imagines running through a sphere to give a
dimension to that sphere in that direction. Three axes of the
earth mean one through the poles, on which the earth rotates
(the axis of rotation); one through the equator,
called the
equatorial axis, twenty-six miles longer than the polar axis;
and now a third axis, roughly through the equator, at an
angle to the other equatorial axis.
The result of having two axes of different lengths running
through the equator is, of course, that the equator itself is a
little flattened; it is oval, rather than truly circular. The flat-
tening is very slight. According to Daly, one axis through the
equator is 2,300 feet longer than the other (97:32); Jeffreys,
according to Daly, prefers half that figure. Daly finds that the
longer diameter through the equator (the major axis) runs
from the Atlantic Ocean, at 25 W. Long., to the Pacific, at
155 E. Long., and the shorter diameter (or minor axis) runs
from the western United States, at 115 W. Long., to the
Indian Ocean, at 65 E. Long. (97:32). Just as the actual
amount of the flattening of the equator is uncertain, so are
the precise situations of the major and minor equatorial
axes. More recently, determinations by the United States
Coast Geodetic Survey have suggested a slightly different
position for one of these axes. Moreover, the third axis apparently
does not run precisely through the equator. The
result is that the earth's shape is distorted by protuberances
of various sizes and shapes. If we take Jeffreys's estimate of
their magnitude, we see that they amount to the equivalent
of about 2,000 feet of rock, or over a mile of ice, and of