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

CAMPBELL'S MECHANISM 375
as a result, the centrifugal momentum not compensated by
gravity has now been reduced to one one hundredth of the
quantity of the effect of the ice mass when it was totally
uncompensated.
It appears, therefore, that the question as to whether a
mass is in isostatic adjustment or not is the essence of the
matter. The icecap, if totally uncompensated, may produce
a centrifugal effect one hundred times the Eotvos effect for
the same mass; furthermore, it may be calculated by the
formula used by Campbell, with the reservation that a small
poleward component of gravity caused by the oblateness of
the earth and proportional to the degree of the oblateness
must be taken into consideration.
Let us attempt to define and clarify this poleward component
of the force of gravity, and to estimate its probable rela-
tive magnitude. It applies both to masses in equilibrium but
with elevated centers of gravity, and to any mass resting on
the earth's surface but uncompensated. Its effect will be
in the latter case than in the former. In both cases it
greater
will tend to counteract the equatorward component of the
centrifugal effect of the icecap.
The poleward component of the force of gravity results
from the oblateness of the earth. It may be visualized as follows:
if you should place a marble at the equator, and if the
rotation of the earth should be interrupted so that the earth
would be at rest, then the marble would tend to roll toward
one of the poles, because the poles are closer to the center of
the earth, and therefore downhill. As I have mentioned, this
applies both to masses out of isostatic equilibrium, and to
those in equilibrium, but with elevated centers of gravity
(that is, to masses standing higher because of their lesser aver-
age density). However, as I have pointed out, there will be a
quantitative difference between the poleward effects of gravity
in these two cases of about 100:1.
In both cases these effects would tend to counterbalance
the equatorward component of the total centrifugal effect of
the icecap. The question is: What proportion of the equator-