ASSIGNME

NT No. 2
(Theories Regarding the
Movement of Earths Crust)
SCI -11

HAPGOODS THEORY OF EARTH CRUST

DISPLACEMENT

Hapgood claimed that towards the end of the last ice age,
around 12,000 years ago, the extensive mass of glacial ice
covering the northern continents caused the lithosphere to slip
over the asthenosphere, moving Antarctica, during a period of
at most several centuries, from a position in the middle
latitudes to its current location, and at the same time rotating
the other continents. Antarcticas movement to the polar region
precipitated the development of its ice cap. Similarly, by
shifting the northern ice sheets out of the arctic zone, the end
of the ice age was facilitated. The claim is that the great buildup of ice in the northern hemisphere was not situated
symmetrically, and that as the earth rotated on its axis, this
imbalance caused the lithosphere to slip catastrophically, as
Hancock states: much as the skin of an orange, if it were
loose, might shift over the inner part of the orange all in one
piece. (Hancock, 1995, p. 10) Naturally, if Antarctica shifted
south, and parts of the northern hemisphere moved out of the
arctic zone, this implies other areas must have shifted into the
arctic area and become colder. Indeed, this is what Hancock
claims happened.
Supposedly, if Antarctica still had flowing rivers, then it
could not have been completely covered by ice, and in that
case, since we know it is now in a polar location where it is too
cold for such rivers, it would make sense if it were previously
located outside of a polar climate.
In his book, Hancock pulls together Hapgoods theory and
more recent evidence to set forth a manner by which
Antarctica, now covered by snow and ice, could have in the
relatively recent geologic past had a temperate climate and
have been home to the lost civilization of Atlantis, now buried
below thousands of feet of ice. The theory of ECD shows no
inherent contradictions with plate tectonics, the now-accepted
explanation of how the earths crust moves and changes. In
fact, Hancock claims both can be true, and the ECD is a
modification to an existing, yet incomplete theory.

LAURASIA THEORY
Laurasia is the name given to the largely northern
supercontinent that is thought to have formed most
recently during the late Mesozoic era, as part of the split
of the Pangaeansupercontinent. It also is believed that
the same continents comprising Laurasia existed as a
coherent landmass much earlier, forming after the
breakup of the hypothesized supercontinent Rodinia
about 1 billion years ago. The landmass of this earlier
period is sometimes referred to as Proto-Laurasia to avoid
confusion with the Mesozoic supercontinent.
The name Laurasia combines the names of Laurentia and
Eurasia. Laurasia included most of the landmasses that
make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere,
chiefly Laurentia (the name given to the North American
craton), as well as Baltica, Siberia, Kazakhstania, and the
North China and East China cratons.
The formation of different supercontinents, such as
Laurasia, is explained today by the theory of plate
tectonics, which recognizes the earth to have a thin, solid
crust, made up of several plates, that floats or rides on an
inner layer of melted rock. The view of a supercontinent
that is hundreds of millions of years old poses a problem
for young-earth creationists, but plate tectonics is widely
accepted today and backed by considerable scientific
evidence.

THE POLAR SHIFT THEORY

The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis suggests that
there have been geologically rapid shifts in the relative
positions of the modern-day geographic locations of the
poles and the axis of rotation of the Earth, creating
calamities such as floods and tectonic events.
There is evidence of precession and changes in axial
tilt, but this change is on much longer time-scales and
does not involve relative motion of the spin axis with
respect to the planet. However, in what is known as true
polar wander, the solid Earth can rotate with respect to a
fixed spin axis. Research shows that during the last 200
million years a total true polar wander of some 30 has
occurred, but that no super-rapid shifts in the Earth's pole
were found during this period. A characteristic rate of
true polar wander is 1 per million years or less. Between
approximately 790 and 810 million years ago, when the
supercontinent Rodinia existed, two geologically rapid
phases of true polar wander may have occurred. In each
of these, the magnetic poles of the Earth shifted by ~55.

FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

In Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock hypothesizes that the

demise of the mammoths and other mega fauna was
caused by a catastrophic cataclysm brought on through an
Earth Crustal Displacement. The result was that terrible
forces were unleashed on all living creatures during the last
Ice Age and that the northern regions of Alaska and
Siberia appear to have been the worst hit by the murderous
upheavals between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. In a
great swathe of death around the edge of the Arctic Circle
the remains of uncountable numbers of large animals have
been found-including many carcasses with the flesh still
intact, and astonishing quantities of perfectly preserved
mammoth tusks (Hancock 1995, 212, 213). Hancock
makes a case for Siberia having experienced a warm
climate before 11,000 B.P. and contrasts it with the
conditions seen there today. As evidence, Hancock focuses
on stomach contents: The mammoth died suddenly, in
intense cold, and in great numbers. Death comes so quickly
that the swallowed vegetation is yet undigested. . . .
Grasses, bluebells, buttercups, tender sedges, and wild
beans have been found, yet identifiable and
undeteriorated, in their mouths and stomachs (Hancock
1995, 215-16). The source for the quote by Hancock is a
1960 newspaper article by Ivan Sanderson. Hancock (1995,
216) also claims: Needless to say, such flora does not
grow anywhere in Siberia today. Its presence there in the
eleventh millennium B.C. compels us to accept that the

region had a pleasant and productive climate-one that was

temperate or even warm. . . .
What is certain, however, is that at some point
between 12-13,000 years ago a destroying frost descended
with horrifying speed upon Siberia and has never relaxed its
grip. In an eerie echo of the Avestic traditions, a land which
had previously enjoyed seven months of summer was
converted almost overnight into a land of ice and snow with
ten months of harsh and frozen winter.