Einstein and Poleshifts

“His idea is original, of great simplicity, and—if it continues to prove itself—of great importance to everything that is related to the history of the earth’s surface.” – Einstein

	Credit: Albert Einstein Archives Einstein's Letter — click image to see full size.
	Credit: Albert Einstein Archives Page 1 of Einstein's Introduction to Hapgood's book — click image to see full size.
	Credit: Albert Einstein Archives Page 2 of Einstein's Introduction to Hapgood's book — click image to see full size.

November 24, 1952

Mr. Charles H. Hapgood
2 Allerton Street
Provincetown, Mass.

Dear Sir:

I have read already some years ago in a popular article about the idea that excentric masses of ice, accumulated near a pole, could produce from time to time considerable dislocations of the floating rigid crust of the earth. I have never occupied myself with this problem but my impression is that a careful study of this hypothesis is really desirable.

I think that our factual knowledge of the underlying facts is at present not precise enough for a reliable answer based exclusively on calculations. Knowledge of geological and paleontological facts may be of decisive importance in the matter. In any case, it would not be justified to discard the idea a priori as adventurous.

The question whether high pressure may not be able to produce fusion of nuclei is also quite justified. It is not known to me if a quantitative theory has been worked out by astrophysicists. The action of pressure would not be a static effect as classical mechanics would suggest, but a kinetic effect corresponding not to temperature but to degeneracy of gases of high density. You should correspond about this with an astro-phycisist experienced in quantum theory, f.i. Dr. L. Schwarzschild at the Princeton University Observatory.

Sincerely yours,

Albert Einstein.

Foreword to the First Edition
by Albert Einstein

I frequently receive communications from people who wish to consult me concerning their unpublished ideas. It goes without saying that these ideas are very seldom possessed of scientific validity. The very first communication, however, that I received from Mr. Hapgood electrified me. His idea is original, of great simplicity, and—if it continues to prove itself—of great importance to everything that is related to the history of the earth’s surface.

A great many empirical data indicate that at each point on the earth’s surface that has been carefully studied, many climatic changes have taken place, apparently quite suddenly. This, according to Hapgood, is explicable if the virtually rigid outer crust of the earth undergoes, from time to time, extensive displacement over the viscous, plastic, possibly fluid inner layers. Such displacements may take place as the consequence of comparatively slight forces exerted on the crust, derived from the earth’s momentum of rotation, which in turn will tend to alter the axis of rotation, which in turn will tend to alter the axis of rotation of the earth’s crust.

In a polar region there is continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth’s rotation acts on these unsymmetrically deposited masses, and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal 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.

Without a doubt the earth’s crust is strong enough not to give way proportionately as the ice is deposited. The only doubtful assumption is that the earth’s crust can be moved easily enough over the inner layers.

The author has not confined himself to a simple presentation of this idea. He has also set forth, cautiously and comprehensively, the extraordinarily rich material that supports his displacement theory. I think that this rather astonishing, even fascinating, idea deserves the serious attention of anyone who concerns himself with the theory of the earth’s development.

To close with an observation that has occurred to me while writing these lines: If the earth’s crust is really so easily displaced over its substratum as this theory requires, then the rigid masses near the earth’s surface must be distributed in such a way that they give rise to displace the crust by centrifugal effect. I think that this deduction might be capable of verification, at least approximately. This centrifugal momentum should in any case be smaller than that produced by the masses of deposited ice.