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

THEICEAGES 39
conflict with basic principles of physics in the field of meteor-
ology. The basic conflict was brought to the attention of
science at least seventy years ago; it has never been resolved.
It consists essentially of the fact that glacial periods were
periods of heavier rainfall in areas outside the regions of the
ice sheets, so that this, together with the deep accumulations
of ice in the great ice sheets, must have involved a higher
average rate of precipitation during ice ages. There is a great
deal of geological evidence in support of this. Only recently,
for example, Davies has discussed the so-called "pluvial"
periods in Africa, and has correlated them with the Pleistocene
glacial periods (107).
Now, meteorologists point out that if precipitation is to be
increased, there has to be a greater supply of moisture in the
air. The only possible way of increasing the amount of
moisture in the air is to raise the temperature of the air.
It would seem, therefore, that to get an ice age one would
have to raise, rather than lower, the average temperature.
This essential fact of physics was pointed out as long ago as
1892 by Sir Robert Ball, who quoted an earlier remark by
Tyndall:
. . . Professor Tyndall has remarked that the heat that would be
would be suffi-
required to evaporate enough water to form a glacier
cient to fuse and transform into glowing molten liquid a stream of
cast iron five times as heavy as the glacier itself (20:108).
William Lee Stokes has again called attention to this unsolved
problem in his recent article entitled "Another Look
at the Ice Age":
Lowering temperatures and increased precipitation
are considered
to have existed side by side on a world-wide scale and over a long
period in apparent defiance of sound climatological theory. Among
the many quotations that could be cited reflecting the need for a
more comprehensive explanation of this difficulty the following seems
typical.
"In the Arequipa region [of Peru], as in many others in both hemi-
spheres where Pleistocene conditions have been studied, this period
appears to have been characterized by increased precipitation as well