Earth's Shifting Crust: Einstein

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"We know that there is no absolute knowledge, that there are only theories; but we forget this. The better educated we are, the harder we believe in axioms. I asked Einstein in Berlin once how he, a trained, drilled, teaching scientist of the worst sort, a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, had been able to make his discoveries. 'How did you ever do it?', I exclaimed, and he, understanding and smiling, gave the answer, 'By challenging an axiom.'" -- Lincoln Steffens, Autobiography (p. 816)

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Charles Hapgood first came to public attention in the mid-1950s with his theory of earth crust displacement, a radical geological idea which attracted the curiosity and support of Albert Einstein. The Einstein-Hapgood correspondence is a forgotten page in the history of science. [The authors] obtained these letters (ten from Einstein to Hapgood) from Albert Einstein's Archives in the Fall of 1995. They show, for the first time, just how extensively Albert Einstein was involved in assisting Charles Hapgood in the development of the theory of earth crust displacement.

In his second reply (24 November 1952) to Hapgood, Einstein wrote that the idea of earth crust displacement should not be ruled out "apriori" just because it didn't fit with what we wanted to believe about the earth's past. What was needed, Einstein claimed, was solid "geological and paleontological facts."

For six months, Hapgood gathered geological evidence to support the idea of an earth crust displacement. On the 3rd of May 1953, he forwarded thirty-eight pages of this evidence to Einstein. Central to his argument was Hapgood's evidence that Lesser Antarctica was ice-free at the same time that North America lay smothered in ice. Einstein responded (8 May 1953):

"I find your arguments very impressive and have the impression that your hypothesis is correct. One can hardly doubt that significant shifts of the crust have taken place repeatedly and within a short time."

He urged Hapgood to follow up on evidence of "earth fractures". A month later (11 June 1953) Hapgood sent Einstein forty-two pages of evidence on earth fractures and the evolution of the ice sheets.

Einstein wrote (17 December 1953) Hapgood urging him to address the "centrifugal momentum" problem. Hapgood responded with four pages on this problem and thirty-seven pages of "paleontological evidence" including the frozen mammoths of Arctic Siberia. Einstein was now convinced. On the 18th of May 1954, Einstein wrote a very favorable foreword [below] for Hapgood's book Earth's Shifting Crust: a Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth Science(published in 1958 by Pantheon Books, New York).

Hapgood and Einstein continued to correspond and finally met in January of 1955. Einstein's last letter was dated the 9th of March 1955 just weeks before the great physicist died on the 18th of April 1955. Einstein's Archives are held in Jerusalem (with copies at Princeton) where they hold the record of an unique and unheralded collaboration on the theory of earth crust displacement. -- FLEM-ATH

FOREWORD 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 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 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.

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 no other considerable centrifugal momentum, which would tend 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. -- ###

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Read Hapgood's entire book online, 453 pages or PDF, 21 MB: Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth Science