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

CAMPBELL'S MECHANISM 357
more improbable by the uneven topography of the continent
and especially by the great fringing mountain ranges. We
have cited Einstein's opinion that the flow-off of ice from
Antarctica in the form of icebergs is an insignificant percent-
age of the annual ice accumulation.
e. The question as to whether the centrifugal effect postulated
in this theory exists at all. Some commentators have
rejected the idea that a large total centrifugal effect may be
created by the asymmetric accumulation of an icecap. They
have agreed only to the existence of a centrifugal effect that
may be created if the center of mass of an object is elevated
above the equilibrium surface of the earth. This has been
termed the Eotvos effect. It does not depend upon the exist-
ence of excess mass at a point. It may be illustrated by an
iceberg floating in water. The ice is in gravitational balance,
having displaced its weight
weight
of water. But one tenth of its
is above the surface of the water. The center of its
mass is therefore higher than the center of the displaced
water. If the center of its mass is further from the earth's
center, it is now moving around the earth's center at a faster
rate. It has been accelerated, and the tangential component
of the acceleration will tend to move it toward the equator.
This concept is well known in geophysics, and conse-
quently it has been the customary mode of considering any
effects on the earth's surface.
question involving centrifugal
But the effects that may arise from an accumulation of ice
that has not been brought within the equilibrium surface of
the earth by isostatic adjustment, and which therefore con-
stitutes an accumulation of excess mass at a point on the
surface, have not received equal attention. I have already
mentioned the fact that the idea came to both Bridgman and
Daly as a new idea, and one that seemed to them worth in-
vestigating. Because of the special importance of this issue,
I am presenting a more detailed discussion of it below.
f. The question as to whether the crust is strong enough
to transmit the centrifugal momentum of the icecap. A num-