The Rise of the Sorcerers: Chapter Two - THE SLIDING OF THE CONTINENTS
A childlike look at the map of the world. - It's a puzzle. - The Wegener's idea. - They agree with him thirty years later. -Brief Digression on paleomagnetism. - Einstein prefaces the work of Hapgood. - How the slide of the continents would occur. - A new theory: the bottom of the oceans moves. A Few Words over Atlantis. - What was Antarctica? - A dream of Hapgood. - Let's travel by sled, with Paul-Érnile Victor, on the trails of the time.
Traces of organic matter were discovered in two fragments brought by its first explorers.
Traces of organic matter were discovered in two fragments brought by its first explorers.
- Are these vestiges of genuine origin?
- Or were they incorporated by the cosmonauts, despite all the precautions?
We still know very well. little about the composition of our satellite. Why the atmosphere On Mars it must not contain nitrogen, if ammonia is to be observed in it? There are many unanswered questions. The information is few and fragmentary. But do we know everything about the Earth in What do we inhabit? Far from it. Its depths are not great to us. unknown parts. Its history remains enigmatic.
Look at a map of the world. Is it a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces were separated? The eastern coast of the Americas seems to have detached from the west coast of Europe and Africa. Will there be separated little by little, to the point of turning a strait into a that 4,800-kilometre-wide Atlantic?
What about the Indian Ocean? And don't they look like South Africa, Madagascar, the Antarctica and Australia: pieces of a puzzle adrift? Ago For a long time, geologists were surprised by the similarities of rock formations discovered in South Africa, Dekkan, Madagascar and Brazil, and some of them formulated the hypothesis of a primitive continent: Gondwana. The first studies of Antarctic geology prompted them to attribute a part of the southern continent to Gondwana. In December 1969, discovered in Antarctica (Montes Alejandra) the skull of a listrosaur.
This is a reptile that is supposed to have lived in the early days. of the secondary period, 230 million years ago. Analogous fossils had been found in South Africa and Australia. Exist evident similarities between the fossil floras of Antarctica, South Africa, Australia and South America. And the coal of Antarctica comes from fossils of large trees that make you think in an equatorial climate.
In 1914, a German, geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener, launched A global hypothesis. According to his theory, all lands formed the Principle a single block. After that, they had to take place dislocations, at different times, and each continent marched to the drift. Wegener died in 1930, during an expedition to Greenland. And his thesis fell into disrepute.
"I myself began my research with the intention of demonstrating that Wegener's theory was absurd," Patrick M. Hurley, professor of geology at MIT.
But, in the face of the accumulation of facts recently discovered, he recognized that the German sage had Essentially right: the continents change places.
Indeed, from 1950 onwards, a new series of elements returned its force to the idea of the mobility of the earth's crust and the Sliding of the continents.
Let's take a look. And may we be forgiven for the technicality of this brief exposition.
Paleomagnetism is the study of direction and intensity of the magnetism of rocks. The importance of this magnetization It is oriented in the direction of the magnetic field in the cooling season. In the sedimentary rock, It is therefore contained in the indication of the orientation of the field Earth's magnetic rating in a given period.
As studies of rock formations continue in Europe, each It was found that the older the rocks, give us positions of the magnetic pole farther away from that of the current geographical pole. Certain rocks from four hundred million years ago of years give us a pole located on the equator. Thus, the Poles, or continents, have shifted.
The study of rocks from the same epoch on different continents It should give us the same position for the pole. However, the experiments yielded a different result. Instead of coinciding, the North America's Paleomagnetic Poles Tilt to the west of Europe. This would only have explanation if North America had moved to the West, in relation to Europe. Which brings us back to the theory of the sliding of the continents.
Similarly, the ancient poles of the southern continents they do not coincide with the poles of the Northern Hemisphere. But there is a DIFFERENCE: ¡ Other elements suggest that the lands of the The Southern Hemisphere separated more than those of the Boreal Hemisphere.
Magnetization directions taken from sedimentary stones of Central Africa places the South Pole in the Republic of South Africa. Similar data observed in Australia place the same pole in in the southern part of Australia.
If you're indications provided by Africa and Australia on the position of the South Pole, three hundred million years ago, are exact, At that time, Australia must have been a little bit on the edge of the country. North and along the east coast of South Africa. That would confirm the theory that, three hundred million years ago, the they formed a single mass.
Wegener's thesis was adopted by Charles H. Hapgood, with much resonance, and sustained by Albert Einstein, always open to the new ideas.
Wegener's thesis was adopted by Charles H. Hapgood, with much resonance, and sustained by Albert Einstein, always open to the new ideas.
In 1958, Einstein wrote the preface to Hapgood's work, in These terms:
"I often receive communications from people who want to Ask me about your unpublished ideas. Needless to say, it rarely happens These ideas have the least scientific value. However, the The first communication I received from Monsieur Hapgood electrified me. Your idea is original, very simple, and, if you can set aside new ideas, proofs to his argument, of great importance for all relating to the history of the Earth's surface.
"Numerous experimental data indicate that, at all points of the surface of the Earth where studies can be carried out with sufficient means, there are numerous changes in climate, seemingly sudden. According to Hapgood, this is explainable: the crust "Earth, practically rigid, would suffer from time to time. when considerable displacements over the inner layers, viscous, plastic, and perhaps fluid. Such displacements can occur as an effect of relatively weak forces exerted on the crust and from the rotational movement of the Earth, which in turn tends to alter the axis of rotation.
"In a polar region, ice is deposited continuously, but It is not distributed symmetrically around the pole. The rotation of the Earth acts on these ice masses in an irregular and irregular manner. It produces a centrifugal motion of action. that is transmitted to the Earth's rigid crust. This centrifugal movement, which increases constantly, it may have provoked, when it reached a certain force, a slippage of the earth's crust over the rest of the body of the Earth, which would bring the polar regions closer to the equator.
"There is no doubt that the earth's crust is sufficiently resistant so as not to sink under the weight of the ice. The Issue The question now is whether this earth's crust can effectively glide over the inner layers.
"The author has not confined himself to a simple exposition of this idea. It presents, in a prudent and complete manner, a material that is both prudent and complete. extraordinarily rich that confirms his theory. I think this A surprising, and even exciting, idea deserves the greatest attention from all those who deal with the problems of the evolution of the Earth.
"I would like to add, in conclusion, a remark that came to my attention mind as I wrote these lines: If the Earth's crust can move so easily, this presupposes that the masses of the earth's surface must be distributed in a so that they do not cause a sufficiently significant centrifugal inertia to cause slippage. I think it would be possible to check this deduction, at least approximately. In any case, this centrifugal motion must be weaker than that produced by the masses of ice deposited."
Einstein's foreword drew attention to the idea of mobility of the continents.
Hapgood admits the existence, under the earth's crust, of a layer viscous on which the continents would glide, like icebergs over the water. Actually, thanks to indirect clues, and thanks to to seismography, we think we know that the bulk of the Earth is Composed as follows:
- An outer crust, 35 kilometers deep, that It thins down to 11 kilometers below the oceans.
- The "mantle," the region that runs from the bottom of the crust up to a depth of 2,900 kilometres and is made up of a 100-kilometer rigid zone (lithosphere), a zone partially in state of fusion, several hundred kilometers (asthenosphere), and a zone of considerable rigidity (mesosphere).
- The center, whose temperature is estimated at 6,000 degrees centigrade, whereas, at its boundary with the mantle, it is probably 4,000 degrees. The heat of the lithosphere is constant, but higher along a narrow strip in the The bottom of the oceans, which is called the mid-oceanic chain.
Another feature of the seabed: a line of depressions around the Earth, with a width of several tens of kilometers and depths of 7,000 to 8,000 meters, and that It is a center of great seismic activity.
This is, in general, an assumed model. We don't have the means to see the section of the Earth, nor has any Really deep probing. Our knowledge of the interior of the Globe is, therefore, very imperfect and largely hypothetical. If any If the system allows us one day to "X-ray" the Earth, we will know if Hapgood is right.
However, even if his theory were to be abandoned, the thesis of the The sliding of the continents had a valuable sprout in the This explanation was given in 1963 by two American professors: Hess (of Princeton) and Díez (from the Experimental Science Service Administration"). Hess and Díez think that, under the wrinkle In the mid-oceanic world, there are uplifts in the Earth's mantle.
A new crust would form over the top of this line of ridges, while the ancient bark would be absorbed by the marine depressions. In this way, the bottom of the ocean, located at the bottom of the Between chains and depressions, he would move progressively.
If one finds it difficult to imagine this mechanism of expansion from the bottom of the seas, you can use the following analogy: enough Imagine two of those moving tapes that are used for the transport, placed so that their ends are at the same height, but turning in the opposite direction. The space that the separates represents the mid-oceanic wrinkle, and its opposite edges, the side closest to depressions. Stone blocks are placed on each belt, on the side of the ridge, and the installation is placed Let's go.
The idea of the expansion of the seabed is relatively recent. If we were to obtain indications in this field, it would be would constitute one of the strongest elements in the long chain of Tests tending to demonstrate the mobility of the cortex terrestrial.
If a new crust is created at the level of the chains, it is necessary to that the oldest crust is destroyed, somewhere, in order to that the Earth always retains the same surface. According to the hypothesis of the expansion of the seabed, this crust is destroys at the site of oceanic depressions.
With regard to violence and the frequency of earth tremors, the oceanic depression system is the the most active in the world. In these regions, earthquakes are current and important. In addition, it is in those depressions that The deepest earthquakes that we know of occur, and they occur at a depth of 700 kilometers. Earth tremors associated with the network of depressions extend into a plane that forms an angle of about 30 degrees to that of the ocean basin. Some Earthquakes occur underneath depressions.
Today, there is no shortage of evidence of the expansion of funds and the mobility of the Earth's crust. In addition Certain seismic studies allow us to capture what is happening in the our days on the surface of the Earth.
Apart from this, if the continents move at the same time as the ocean floor, it seems inevitable that two or more masses Continental regions will eventually collide.
The mid-oceanic wrinkle has contact, at two points, with a mass The Gulf of California and the Red Sea. In both cases, This leads to a great deal of tectonic activity. The Red Sea was formed at as a result of the separation of the Arabian Peninsula from the African continent. Apparently, California is taking off along the fissure of San Andrés, at the rate of five centimeters per year. If the current movement continues, within a few million California will have become an island.
At present, we do not know the exact nature of the movement of the mantle. We have to wait for the results of the studies in course. In any case, the manifestation of these forces affects deeply to the human race, and its comprehension opens up new and fantastic hypotheses about the past and the future.
Hess and Díez's explanation for the expansion of funds submarines, seems preferable to Hapgood's thesis, which presupposes the existence of a viscous layer on which the crust would sail terrestrial. As we have observed, the temperature of the boundary between The center and mantle is 4,000 degrees Celsius.
Not understood that this temperature could cause the formation of a viscosity that would allow the rapid sliding of the Continents. However, we don't know a lot about the properties of matter at high temperatures and combined with considerable pressures.
According to Hapgood, the fact that fossils have been found in Antarctica shows that there was a time when this continent was located at the equator, and it was displaced by subsequently. Ten or fifteen thousand years ago, Antarctica became It was about four thousand kilometers farther north. Its climate was temperate. Then, for unknown reasons, an ice age began.
The ice accumulated at first at the poles, and then reached temperate zones. By the effect of centrifugal forces produced by the two centers of gravity of the polar ice caps, the earth's crust began to slide; Hudson Bay and Quebec moved 4,000 kilometres south; Siberia, towards the North, and the Antarctica, to the South. In a few thousand A few years ago, Antarctica reached the South Pole, acquiring its current climate.
It is this figure of only ten or fifteen thousand years that most of the Geologists refuse to admit. However, the thaw was very in America, geologically speaking (a few thousand years ago as maximum), and the same was true of the Siberian freeze.
Be that as it may, modern geology makes plausible the Wegener's initial hypothesis; The Displacement of Continents It seems certain, though its mechanism is doubtful, that it may have been a landslide on a viscous layer or a widening of the ocean floor. And, if we admit the possibility of great civilizations disappearing without leaving trace, there is no doubt that these geological phenomena can give us elements to feed our fantasy than the submerged continents, Mu or Atlantis, so dear to the Theosophists.
On the subject of Atlantis, let us make an aside. By our On the other hand, we willingly agree with the Russian thesis that the Atlantis was not a continent, but the island of Thera, a colony Cretan Mediterranean, destroyed by the explosion of the volcano Santorin, about 3,000 years before Jesus Christ.
But let's get back to Hapgood. One is inclined to conjecture, with that there was a civilization in Antarctica, or that other civilizations existed in Antarctica. civilizations had knowledge of this continent before the glacial period that was to cause its relatively abrupt displacement. Perhaps they sleep vestiges under the ice. And We may wonder whether, for the same reasons, they will not be housed also, in the far North, other traces of civilizations buried under the ice of Greenland, a country that may have with the legends of Thule, Hyperborea, and Numinor.
And what would be the life of men, on a continent adrift, in the process of dislocation? The latitude changed over the centuries. The earthquakes were continuous; the climate was transformed, Weather disturbances must have been frightening.
In the light of such hypotheses, would it not be well to re-examine the legends and Nordic traditions?
"There's something irresistibly romantic about it Hapgood writes, "on the subject of vanished civilizations, of the destroyed cities, of the forgotten discoveries. Is as if the mind of man were gliding along the Trails of time. It seems as if, somewhere, in a bend from one of these paths, they had to appear abruptly wide Perspectives: Wonderful cities that were once flourishing, to be extinguished later, in the world and in memory."
And, in the vague presentiment of an eternal return of things, while We think about the fate of our own world today, our soul listen to Shakespeare's words:
"There will come a day when, the same as the foundationless building of this vision, the towers crowned with clouds, the magnificent palaces, the solemn temples, this immense globe itself, and all that it contains, will dissolve without Leaving more of a trail of mist on the horizon than the immaterial party that has just vanished..."
And it was that an astonishing discovery was to confirm, to the eyes of the Hapgood's thesis on Antarctica. We're talking about the famous question of the Piri Reis maps.
This issue, first raised in France by Paul-Émile Victor, leader of the French polar expeditions, was evoked by us in The Return of the Sorcerers. This was followed by a bountiful literature, dubious for the most part. Hapgood's own work, Maps of the Ancient Seas; the sessions held in 1956 at the Georgetown University, Washington, on the topic "New and ancient discoveries in Antarctica," and some other works, They corroborated and deepened, since they did not solve, the riddle posed by those maps.
In July 1966, we asked Paul-Émile I asked Mr. Victor to write his opinion and information for Planète about the mystery of Piri Reis. In view of the fact that the have not surpassed the article that he sent us at the time, We find it useful to reproduce it here.
'In this article "We do not hesitate to follow the path of bold hypotheses. But we insist on the fact that there is no it's about nothing else. The true sages are poets and men of imagination. Without them, science would not exist. The others are like accountants or grocery storekeepers who discover nothing. Therefore, Besides, how dull life would be without imagination!"
If you think so, take Victor's sleigh and make a Excursion along the "paths of time".