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

IV : THE
MOUNTAINS
PART I. The Folding and Fracturing of the Crust
By far the most magnificent features of the earth's crust are
the lofty mountain ranges that are found on all the conti-
nents, exciting the wonder of man, and those other, equally
tremendous mountain ranges that lie drowned in the silent
depths of the sea. These mountain ranges carry in their intricate
formations much of the history of the earth's crust. If
we could know the forces that produced them, we could grasp
the basic dynamic principles of the earth's development. Unfortunately,
though the mountains have long been the sub-
ject of intensive scientific investigation, they have preserved
their secrets well. The most important of these secrets is the
secret of their birth. What forces within the earth were re-
sponsible for their formation? As of now, we do not know.
Nothing could better betray the extent of our ignorance
of the dynamic processes that have shaped the face of the
earth than this confession of ignorance. Yet, it is agreed by
geologists that no theory has so far satisfactorily explained
mountain building. Daly, for example, has referred to the
process of the folding of the rock strata, a phase of mountain
building, as "an utterly mysterious process" (7od:4i). Gutenberg
has concluded that none of the present theories will do.
He remarks that "all the forces discussed so far seem to be
insufficient to produce the formation of mountains" (194:
171), and this includes, of course, the long-exploded (but still
widely current) theory that ascribes mountains to the cooling
and shrinking of the earth. As to this, Gutenberg remarks,
". . . other scientists have pointed out that the cooling of
the earth is not sufficient to produce the major part of the
crumpling, especially since investigations
of the radioactive
heat which is produced inside the earth have indicated that