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

EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
would suffice to raise the sea level between 200 and 300 feet.
Half of it, therefore, would account for the amount of the
fall in sea level noted by Anderson.
There is a widespread impression that the sea level is now
rising all over the world, but this impression seems to be mis-
taken. It is natural, considering the widely publicized opin-
ion that all present-day icecaps are in retreat, that people
should rush to interpret a relative rise of the sea level at a
few localities as indications of a general rise, caused by the
assumed current melting of ice in both hemispheres. An
examination of the data on which this claim is based shows,
however, that the evidence is quite insufficient. I recently
made an inquiry of the United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey regarding this matter and received in reply
a com-
munication from Dr. H. E. Finnegan, Chief of the Division
of Tides and Currents, in which he stated:
. . . Long period tide records from control stations maintained
by the Coast and Geodetic Survey show that there has been a relative
rise of sea-level along each of the coasts of the United States.
The rate of rise varies somewhat with the length of series and dif-
ferent regions. During the
past 20 years the relative rise of sea-level
along our East Coast has been at the rate of
a foot per year. On our Pacific Coast the rate
two hundredths of
has been somewhat
less.
In Alaska, the tide records for Ketchikan show no definite change
in sea-level. At certain places farther north, however, the records
indicate a relative fall of sea-level. . . . (152).
This can, I think, be regarded as a summary of the facts
presently known on this subject. It is plain that it does not
add up to any universal rise of the sea level. Not only is no
such rise indicated; exactly the opposite is implied by the
facts. The facts show that different parts of the United States
are subsiding at different rates, that Alaska is not subsiding
at all, and that places farther north are actually rising. What
reason is there to bring the sea into it? A "eustatic" change in
sea level is not indicated by these facts, but differential movements
of parts of the continent are. Moreover, the data come