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

CAMPBELLS MECHANISM 351
place to place, and is everywhere penetrated by deep frac-
tures. It would naturally fail at its weakest point. As we shall
see below, Einstein, in view of these facts, said that he would
be satisfied as to the plausibility of the mechanics of this
of the
theory if the ratio of the bursting stress to the strength
crust was 1:100. The ratio as shown by Campbell is very
much closer than the ratio demanded by Einstein. It seems
therefore reasonable to suppose that at some point of the
future growth of the icecap, which is now, it appears, still
growing, the crust may respond to the increasing bursting
stress by fracturing. When this occurs, it may be expected
that a process will begin of gradual fracturing and folding of
the crust, accompanied by the beginning of its displacement
over the underlying layers.
force is re-
Campbell has pointed out that no very great
quired to accomplish a widespread fracturing of the crust
At the first local failure of the crust
during a displacement.
in response to the bursting stress, the stress will be relieved
at that point, to become effective immediately at an adjacent
point. Thus the fracture will travel through the crust without
the application of additional force. From this it is clear
that the steady application of a small force would suffice to
fracture the crust to a great distance. In his conversation with
Einstein, an account of which is given below, Campbell gave
a convincing illustration of this principle.
The ability of the crust to resist fracture is slight. Jeffreys
found that a strain equal to the weight of a layer of rock 2,200
feet in height would fracture it to its full depth (238:202).
It is clear that the tensile strength of the crust does not com-
pare with its crushing strength, which, also according to
Jeffreys,
is sufficient to enable it to transmit mountain-mak-
ing stresses to any distance. Campbell visualizes the process
of crust displacement not as a continuous movement but
as a staged movement resulting from an interaction alter-
nately of the direct thrust of the icecap and of the bursting
stress. He writes: