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Encyclopedia > Pole shift theory

A pole shift theory is a hypothesis that the axis of rotation of a planet has not always been at its present-day locations or that the axis will not persist there; in other words, that its physical poles had been or will be shifted. Pole shift theory is almost always discussed in the context of Earth, but other solar system bodies may have experienced axial reorientation during their existences. A hypothesis (from Greek ) is a suggested explanation of a phenomenon or reasoned proposal suggesting a possible correlation between multiple phenomena. ... The axis of rotation of a rotating body is a line such that the distance between any point on the line and any point of the body remains constant under the rotation. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale): The Sun, the eight planets, the asteroid belt containing the dwarf planet Ceres, outermost there is the dwarf planet Pluto (the dwarf planet Eris not shown), and a comet. ...


Pole shift theories are not to be confused with plate tectonics, the well-accepted geological theory that the Earth's surface consists of solid plates which shift over a fluid asthenosphere; nor with continental drift, the corollary to plate tectonics which maintains that locations of the continents have moved slowly over the face of the earth,[1] resulting in the gradual merging and breakup of continents and oceans over hundreds of millions of years.[2] Bridge across the Álfagjá rift valley in southwest Iceland, the boundary of the Eurasian and North American continental tectonic plates. ... Dont be afraid of big words. ... Continental drift, first proposed as a theory by Alfred Wegener in 1912, is the movement of the Earths continents relative to each other. ...


Pole shift theories are also not to be confused with Geomagnetic reversal, the periodic reversal of the earth's magnetic field (effectively switching the north and south poles). Geomagnetic reversal has more acceptance in the scientific community than pole shift theories.[citation needed] Recent geomagnetic reversals. ...

Contents

Early proponents

One early popular proponent of a pole shift theory was Hugh Auchincloss Brown, an electrical engineer who advanced a theory of catastrophic pole shift. Brown argued that accumulation of ice at the poles caused recurring tipping of the axis in cycles of approximately 7 millennia. Hugh Auchincloss Brown (23 December 1879 – 19 November 1975) was an electrical engineer best known for advancing a theory of catastropic pole shift. ...


Charles Hapgood is now perhaps the best remembered early proponent, from in his books The Earth's Shifting Crust (1958) (which includes a foreword by Albert Einstein) and Path of the Pole (1970). Hapgood speculated that the ice mass at one or both poles over-accumulates which destabilizes the earth's rotational balance, causing slippage of all or much of earth's outer crust around the earth's core, which retains its axial orientation. Based on his own research, he argued that each shift took approximately five thousand years, followed by 20 to 30 thousand year periods with no polar movements. Also, in his calculations, the area of movement never covered more than 40 degrees. His examples of recent locations for the North Pole include the Yukon Territory, Hudson Bay, and in the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Norway.[3] Charles H. Hapgood, (1904-1982) was an American academician, and one of the best known advocates of a Pole shift theory. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Einstein redirects here. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ...


This is an example of slow pole shift motion, which displays the most minor alterations and no destruction. A more dramatic view assumes more rapid changes, with dramatic alterations of geography and localized areas of destruction due to earthquakes and tsunamis. Several recent books propose changes that take place in weeks, days, or even hours,[4] resulting in a variety of doomsday scenarios.


Regardless of speed, the results of a shift occurring results in major climate changes for most of the earth's surface, as areas that were formally equatorial become temperate, and areas that were temperate become either more equatorial or more arctic. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400,000 years Climate change refers to the variation in the Earths global climate or in regional climates over time. ... World map showing the equator in red The Equator is an imaginary circle drawn around a planet (or other astronomical object) at a distance halfway between the poles. ... In geography, temperate latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border Satellite image of the Arctic surface The Arctic is the area around the Earths North Pole, opposite the Antarctican area around the South Pole. ...


Hapgood wrote to Canadian librarian, Rand Flem-Ath, encouraging him in his pursuit of scientific evidence to back Hapgood's claim and in his expansion of the theory. Flem-Ath published the results of this work in 1995 in When the Sky Fell co-written with his wife, Rose. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...


Other theories which are not dependent upon polar ice masses include those involving:

  • a high-velocity asteroid or comet which hits Earth at such an angle that the lithosphere moves independent of the mantle
  • a high-velocity asteroid or comet which hits Earth at such an angle that the entire planet shifts axis.
  • an unusually magnetic celestial object which passes close enough to Earth to temporarily reorient the magnetic field, which then “drags” the lithosphere about a new axis of rotation. Eventually, the sun's magnetic field again determines the Earth's, after the intruding celestial object “returns” to a location from which it cannot influence Earth.
  • perturbations of the topography of the core-mantle boundary, perhaps induced by differential core rotation and shift of its axial rotation vector, leading to CMB mass redistributions. See, e.g., Bowin.[5]
  • mass redistributions in the mantle from mantle avalanches or other deformations. See, e.g., Ladbury,[6] and Steinberger and O'Connell.[7]

253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... Comet Hale-Bopp A comet is a small body in the solar system that orbits the Sun and (at least occasionally) exhibits a coma (or atmosphere) and/or a tail â€” both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comets nucleus, which itself is a minor body composed... The tectonic plates of the Lithosphere on Earth. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require restructuring. ... The term celestial refers to the sky and/or Heaven. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The tectonic plates of the Lithosphere on Earth. ...

New Age Theories

The field has attracted many pseudoscientific and non-scientific authors, offering a wide variety of things as evidence, including such things as psychic readings. Theosophic writer David Pratt[8] has put together a notable comparison of scientific views regarding pole shift compared to those of Theosophy.[9] New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ... Phrenology is regarded today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ... Emblem of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) described at [1] Theosophy, literally wisdom of the divine (in the Greek language), designates several bodies of ideas. ...


Recent Research

Recent work by scientists and geologists Adam Maloof of Princeton University and Galen Halverson of Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, says that Earth indeed rebalanced itself around 800 million years ago during the Precambrian time period.[10] They tested this idea by studying magnetic minerals in sedimentary rocks in a Norwegian archipelago. Using these minerals, Maloof and Halverson found that the north pole shifted more than 50 degrees — about the current distance between Alaska and the equator — in less than 20 million years. This reasoning is supported by a record of changes in sea level and ocean chemistry in the Norwegian sediments that could be explained by true polar wander, the team reports in the September–October 2006 issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.[11]


Research using GPS, conducted by Geoffery Blewitt of the University of Nevada, has shown that normal seasonal changes in the distribution of ice and water causes minor movements of the poles.[12] The phrase University of Nevada by itself usually refers to the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), because that was the name by which it was known from the time of its founding in 1874 until its name was changed to University of Nevada, Reno in 1969, at the same time...


Use in fiction

  • A novelistic treatment may be found in Allan W. Eckert's The HAB Theory.[13]
  • In the Clive Cussler book Atlantis Found, Doomsday is narrowly averted by stopping an evil mastermind from separating a section of the Ross Ice Shelf from Antarctica.[14]

Atlantis Found is a 1999 novel by Clive Cussler, part of the Dirk Pitt series. ...

External links

  • Much work on this subject has been done by William Hutton and can be found at The Hutton Commentaries website.[15] William Hutton and Jonathan Eagle in 2004 published Earth's Catastrophic Past and Future, which summarizes and extends their earlier work on possible mechanisms and timing of a future pole shift. [16]
  • Alledged “Evidence” of Earth Crustal Displacement (Pole Shift) Analysis of some evdience used to argue for geologically recent Pole Shift
  • Fingerprints of the Gods An analysis of arguments made for a Late Pleistocene Pole Shift, based in the ideas of Rand Flem-Ath, by Graham Hancock in his 1995 book
  • “Earth's Poles May Have Wandered”, ScienceNOW Daily News, August 2006

Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The PaleoMap Project
  2. ^ Science Magazine, “Late Cretaceous True Polar Wander: Not So Fast”
  3. ^ Theory of Crustal Displacement — summarized by Ellie Crystal
  4. ^ POLESHIFTS Theosophy and Science Contrasted, David Pratt January 2000 Part 2 Science, Psychics, and Myths
  5. ^ Carl Bowin, "Mass anomaly structure of the Earth," Reviews of Geophysics 38(3; August 2000):355-387.
  6. ^ R. Ladbury, “Model suggests deep-mantle topography goes with the flow”, Physics Today, August 1999, 21-24.
  7. ^ B. Steinberger and R. J. O'Connell, “Changes of the Earth's rotation axis owing to advection of mantle density heterogeneities”, Nature 387(8 May 1997):169.
  8. ^ David Pratt homepage
  9. ^ POLESHIFTS Theosophy and Science Contrasted David Pratt January 2000
  10. ^ “Earth's Poles May Have Wandered”, Science NOW Daily News, August 2006
  11. ^ “Combined paleomagnetic, isotopic, and stratigraphic evidence for true polar wander from the Neoproterozoic Akademikerbreen Group, Svalbard, Norway” - Geological Society of America Bulletin: Vol. 118, No. 9, pp. 1099–1124.
  12. ^ Boston Globe News article concerning study of earth's movement.
  13. ^ Allan W. Eckert, The HAB Theory, Little Brown & Company, 1976, ISBN 0-316-20859-0; reprinted in 2000, ISBN 0-595-00820-8
  14. ^ Clive Cussler, Atlantis Found, FL: G.P. Putnam's Sons (6 December 1999, 534p. ISBN 0-399-14588-5
  15. ^ The Hutton Commentaries
  16. ^ William Hutton and Jonathan Eagle, Earth's Catastrophic Past and Future: A Scientific Analysis of Information Channeled by Edgar Cayce, Boca Raton, FL: Universal Publishers (30 August 2004), 598 p. ISBN 1-58112-517-8. Foreword, Index, and Appendices.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Pole Shifts - Crystalinks (1695 words)
A pole shift theory is a hypothesis based on geologic evidence that the physical north and south poles of Earth have not always been at their present-day locations; in other words, the axis of rotation had been "shifted".
Pole shift theory is almost always discussed in the context of Earth, but other solar system bodies may have experienced axial reorientation during their existences.
Pole shifts are a cataclysmic inversion of the planet's axis of rotation, up to 180 degrees; a sudden slippage of the planet's solid crust around the molten core.
Pole shift theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1080 words)
A pole shift theory is a hypothesis that the axis of rotation of a planet have not always been at their present-day locations or that they will not persist there; in other words, that its physical poles had been or will be shifted.
Pole shift theory is almost always discussed in the context of Earth, but other solar system bodies may have experienced axial reorientation during their existences.
Pole shift theories are not to be confused with plate tectonics, the well-accepted geological theory that the Earth's surface consists of solid plates which shift over a fluid asthenosphere; nor with continental drift, the corollary to plate tectonics which maintains that locations of the continents have moved slowly over the face of the earth,
  More results at FactBites »


 

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