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

EARLIER DISPLACEMENTS OF CRUST 283
disposes, finally, it seems to me, of the traditional glacial
chronology of the Pleistocene.
As a consequence of this breakdown of the old theory, it
seems to me that we must now start from the beginning, and
build a new glacial chronology of the Pleistocene. Our
method can only be the tested method of science: to proceed
from the known to the unknown; from the Wisconsin glaciation,
where our information is most ample, backwards.
3. The Beginning of the Wisconsin Glaciation
Examination indicates that, with the elimination of some
mutually contradictory and evidently disturbed sediments,
the three Ross Sea cores show a change from the deposition
of glacial sediment to the deposition of temperate sediment
on the Ross Sea bottom 40,000 years ago (p. 306). As a first step
in establishing an approximate date for the beginning of the
climatic change (that is, for the beginning of the movement
of the crust) that was to produce, simultaneously, the temperate
age in Antarctica and the glacial age in North America,
we must interpret the meaning of this change in the
sediment.
In the first place, the date itself is subject to some doubt.
Two cores show the change at 40,000 years ago; one shows it
a few thousand years later, but at the same time it also shows
a change at 40,000 years ago from one type of glacial sediment
to another. The change in that core is from coarse to
fine sediment, which in itself indicates amelioration of cli-
mate. Thus, all three cores indicate at least some warming
of the climate about 40,000 years ago.
Now, what lapse of time must we allow between the be-
ginning of the change of climate in Antarctica and the resulting
end of glacial deposition on the Ross Sea bottom? In the
first place, we must remember that the movement of the crust
would at first be entirely imperceptible. The speed of
the displacement would increase slowly. After several thou-