Posted by Toltec, on November 21, 2002 at 12:57 GMT
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. There are several major scientists of this century that also expouse this concept as an event that has happened before in Earth's
past.
Geographic axis: man-made arbitrary north-south fixed reference that determines lines of longitude and latitude, and the geographic North and South
Poles.
Axis of instantaneous rotation: the true astronomical axis; the rotation axis. The line drawn through the Earth about which it is actually rotating at
any point in time. The points where the line cuts through the earth's surface are called the "rotation poles"; the visualised extention of the
north axis line in space currently points to the star Polaris, the North Star.
Axis of maximum moment of inertia = the axis of figure: because the Earth is not a perfect sphere, but is physically an oblate spheroid, the position
of the axis of figure is not a precise constant, but is affected by the constant change in the earth's distribution of total mass: (ie, by ocean
tides, atmospheric cond- itions, plate tectonic movements, etc.).
The combinations, and movements, of these masses with gravitational, centrifugal and orbital velocity vector forces, create what we call the
equatorial bulge, and thus, the axis of figure. If the Earth were a perfect sphere, there would not be such an axis. The angular difference between
the astronomical axis and the axis of figure, called a "nutation", causes an Earth orbital spirical oscillation, known as the famous Chandler
"wobble". The equatorial bulge, the rotation axis' angle of inclination to the ecliptic plane, the gravitational tidal forces of the Sun, Moon and
planets, have an affect on the Earths' orbit that produces the famous precession of the equinoxes.
Axial Tilt: the ecliptic is the plane of the Earth's ellipsoidal orbital path around the sun; the rotation axis is currently inclined to the ecliptic
by an angle of 23.5 degrees: this is called the obliquity, or tilt, of the axis. It is this axial tilt that causes our annual seasons. Due to orbital
dynamics, the obliquity varies between a minimum of 21 degs. 39 mins. and a maximum of 24 degs. 36 mins. over a 41,000 year cycle. The axial tilt's
rate of change, (angular differentiation), is currently measured as .013 degs. per century.
Geomagnetic axis: not to be confused with the geographical axis, as it often times is. The Earth's magnetic field (whose real source is still an
ongoing scientific mystery, but generally attributed to the interactions between the interior molten convection currents and the nickle-iron core,
generating an electromagnetic force field, coupled with the rotational and orbital forces), itself has, by its own lines of force through space, the
magnetosphere, a north- south axis. At present, the angular difference between geographic and geo- magnetic north poles is about 11 degrees.
Through paleomagnetism, (the study of the magnetic properties of rocks), scientists now have solid proof that the earth's magnetic field, and thus
the geomagnetic north and south poles, have reversed itself namy times in the past. Magnetic field polarity reversals are magnetic poleshifts. The
geologic record also shows that the strength of the magnetic field varies widely in time, and fluctuates wildly during field reversals, sometimes
dropping to zero gauss strength; ie: the field vanishes, disappears! It is also a proven fact that the magnetic poles wander, literally zig-zagging
around its axis.
At the present time, the field strength is decreasing. Again, the mechanisms driving all of this still not understood very well.
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"In a polar region there is a continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth's rotation acts on these
unsymmetrically deposited masses [of ice], and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly
increasing centrifugal momentum produced in this way will, when it has reached a certain point, produce a movement of the Earth's crust over the rest
of the Earth's body, and this will displace the polar regions toward the equator. "
Albert Einstein quote: from The Path of the Pole by Charles Hapgood
See attached as well as bottom of link for continued:
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