POLE SHIFTS

The most remarkable aspect of the information supplied by ancient maps like that of Piri Reis and Oronteus Fineaus is that they seem to portray Antarctica without its ice cap. In fact this is not entirely as remarkable as it seems, because Antarctica had no ice cap during much of its existence, as has been proven by finds of tropical plant and animal remains after drilling through the ice. These changes in climate came about by continent drift, just like Africa was once attached to South America. The problem is that these processes play in the hundreds of thousands of years, which puts them too long back by far for any Homo sapiens to have witnessed.

Hapgood, who threw up the problem, also came with a solution. It was known independently from measurements of the magnetism of rocks that with intervals of some tens of thousands of years, the position of the poles shifts. At one time the North Pole was located in Canada, before it shifted to its present position, see the figire on the left. Now a shift of the pole comes with a shift of the rotation of the earth. And physics has a law that says that one cannot change the rotation of an object without some counter change of rotation somewhere else (this is the reason it is so easy to stay upright on a riding bike or motorcycle, while if it stands still you fall immediately: the rotation of the wheels keeps you upright while they don’t want to change their axis of rotation). In case of the earth one would have a hard time to find something to compensate a change in its rotation as a whole, if it would start rotating in another direction.

The idea Hapgood came up with is that for a shift for the poles on the map of earth, it can not only be the axis that does the shifting, but also the map. Hapgood proposed that not the entire earth, but only its surface, the crust, has shifted. Physically this is much more easy, because the crust has only the tiniest fraction of the weight of the whole earth. And since the inner part of the earth is more or less fluid, as existence of vulcanoes show, the crust can easily move around while more or less afloat on these fluid internals.

But then up comes the next question: why would the crust shift anyway. Here comes a surprising name to the fore; Hapgood send his proposal to Einstein, who, as a physicist, knew a reason why something rotating would change its axis: if its weight isn’t evenly divided. And this off balance weight could be caused by the uneven distribution of the ice caps at the poles. There is right now such an uneven distribution at the Antarctic, because its land mass isn’t centred on the South Pole.

So the possible mechanism for a shift of the poles is a shift of the entire crust. For anything on the surface this has the same effect as an earthquake of the entire earth. A great number of volcanoes would get active or come into existence, and all coastal areas would be inundated by giant flood waves. 

These are the short term consequences of a pole shift or earth crust shift. On the longer term there are two more catastrophes to come. Firstly the climate in large parts of the world will be disturbed leading to all kinds of unusual weather, having consequences for all living things. Secondly, the change in climate also applies to what used to be the polar regions that are still covered with thick ice caps. These caps will melt for a big part, due their movement to warmer regions. So the sea water levels will rise dramatically, inundating the coastal regions in not as destructive a fashion as the tidal waves, but this time on a more permanent basis.

In ancient times, just like in modern times, much of the important centres of civilization would be close to coasts and rivers, because this provides food and easy transport. So Hapgood’s solution for a possible ice free Antarctica leads to yet another problem: it would wipe out much of existing humanity and civilization. In order to see how much of a problem this is, go to the Cataclysm page.