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

EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
184
We have seen that areas displaced poleward in a movement
of the crust will be elevated relatively to sea level. Two areas
will be displaced poleward at the same time, one to each pole,
and both will be elevated somewhat with reference to the
equilibrium surface. The distance through the earth between
these points will be increased slightly. At the same time, two
other areas will be displaced equatorward. They will subside,
and the diameter through the earth between them will be
shortened to some extent. These areas will be centered on
the meridian of the movement of the crust. At 90 degrees'
remove on each side from this meridian, there will be no
movement; here are the so-called "pivot areas*' that do not
change their latitude. They will therefore not change their
elevation: a diameter through the earth between them will
be unchanged.
As the consequence of this, we see that in one direction
the diameter of the earth through the equator is shortened;
in the other direction through the equator it is not. The re-
sult must inevitably be the ellipticity, or ovalarity, of the
equator.
The consequences of the displacement do not end here. As
we have stated from time to time, much complicated folding
and faulting of the crust, much shifting of matter below the
crust, would be inevitable or likely, and these would have
effects at the surface, including basining and doming. Hence,
some of the protuberances now being discovered may have
nothing to do with the triaxial distortions, and may simply
be confused with them.
Now, it is clear that this explanation of the triaxiality re-
quires neither complicated and hazardous speculations about
the earth's interior nor an incredible strength in the earth's
crust. The protuberances remain because the matter below
the crust is too highly viscous to flow the great distances and
in the great volume that would be required to re-establish
the normal shape of the earth: that is, it is too viscous to have
been able to do so in the very short period that has elapsed
since the last movement of the crust. But no doubt the read-