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

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

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198<br />

EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST<br />

To begin with, it is clear that a massive centrifugal effect<br />

must have been created <strong>by</strong> the Wisconsin ice sheet, if the<br />

considerations presented in Chapter VI are sound. Radioelement<br />

dating has shown that the ice sheet developed in a very<br />

short time. A high degree <strong>of</strong> isostatic compensation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

icecap is therefore unlikely, even if isostatic compensation<br />

could really eliminate the effect.<br />

It is significant that the Wisconsin ice sheet was asymmet-<br />

rical in its distribution about the center from which it spread.<br />

If we assume that the ice center from which the icecap<br />

radiated coincided at that time with the pole, then this<br />

asymmetrical<br />

distribution must have resulted in a centrifu-<br />

gal effect. Furthermore, it appears that the great bulk <strong>of</strong> the<br />

ice lay to the south <strong>of</strong> the ice center, and so therefore the<br />

direction <strong>of</strong> the resulting centrifugal thrust would have been<br />

southward, and the result would have been to shift the Hudson<br />

Bay region due south from the pole toward its present<br />

latitude. This is indeed in remarkable agreement with the<br />

theory. <strong>The</strong> facts are reported <strong>by</strong> W. F. Tanner, writing in<br />

Science, under the title "<strong>The</strong> North-South Asymmetry <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Pleistocene Ice Sheet" (414).<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are some comparisons between this North American<br />

icecap and the present icecap in Antarctica that are worth<br />

making. <strong>The</strong> North American icecap is thought to have covered<br />

about 4,000,000 square miles, as compared with the<br />

nearly 6,000,000 square miles <strong>of</strong> the present Antarctic cap.<br />

It may be asked, Why should the smaller North American<br />

icecap have started a slide <strong>of</strong> the earth's crust, when this<br />

larger one in Antarctica has not? <strong>The</strong> answer to this appears<br />

to lie in the different degrees <strong>of</strong> eccentricity, or asymmetry,<br />

<strong>of</strong> the two icecaps. In Antarctica, the pole is fairly near<br />

the center <strong>of</strong> the continent, so that the real asymmetry <strong>of</strong> the<br />

icecap is not at first glance apparent.<br />

In North America the<br />

presumed pole in Hudson Bay or perhaps in western Quebec<br />

was on the eastern side <strong>of</strong> the continent, quite near the sea.<br />

In this situation, the icecap was more eccentric. Its center<br />

<strong>of</strong> gravity was in all probability much farther from the pole

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