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

THE MOUNTAINS 8j
the earth. The doubts that have gathered about this assumption
are sufficiently serious to prevent us from basing any
theory of mountain building upon it (for no theory can
have greater probability than its own basic assumptions). But
even if this were not the case, even if the molten origin of the
earth were a demonstrated fact, still, it was pointed out
twenty-five years ago, by Clarence Button, that the shrinking
of the globe would not explain the folded mountains. Button
had two objections. First, he said that the calculated amount
of the shrinkage that could have occurred since the crust was
formed, by the reduction of temperatures, would not account
for the volume of the mountains known to have existed dur-
ing geological history. Secondly, he pointed out that the
kinds of pressures that would exist in the crust as a result of
the shrinking of the earth could not produce mountain
ranges of the existing patterns. On this point, he said:
... As regards the second objection, which, if possible, is more
cogent still, it may be remarked that the most striking features in the
facts to be explained are the long narrow tracts occupied by the belts
of plicated strata, and the approximate parallelism of their folds.
These call for the action of some great horizontal force thrusting in
one direction. Take, for example, the Appalachian system, stretching
from Maine to Georgia. Here is a great belt of parallel synclinals and
anticlinals with a persistent trend, and no rational inquirer can doubt
that they have been puckered up by some vast force acting hori-
zontally in a northwest and southeast direction. Doubtless it is the
most wonderful example of systematic plication in the world. But
there are many others that indicate the operation of the same forces
with the same broad characteristics. The particular characteristic with
which we are concerned is that in each of these folded belts the horizontal
force has acted wholly or almost wholly in one direction. But
the forces that would arise from a collapsing crust would act in every
direction equally. There would be no determinate direction. In short,
the process would not form long narrow belts of parallel folds. As I
have not time to discuss the hypothesis further, I dismiss it with the
remark that it is quantitatively insufficient and qualitatively inapplicable.
It is an explanation that explains nothing that we want to
explain. . . . (122:201-02).
It is indeed astonishing to note that though a quarter of a
century has passed since this statement was made, and though