From: Jason Davies <DaviesJR@cardiff.ac.uk>

Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 11:20:11 GMT0BST

Subject: Re: General enquiry

Hello again, sorry it took a while to reply but I've had coursework

commitments (I am but an undergraduate after all)...

Here are some views from myself and several colleagues (please

edit as appropriate - I'm not sure what is relevant, incorrect or

already answered).

Sorry to hear that the Pole Shift Forum has gone largely

unnoticed by the science world; it's probably easier to convince

those whose expertise is in the field of history etc., and so-called

"popular science", rather than the physical sciences, of the

existence of earth-crust displacement (they are generally more

open-minded I find, but also tend to denounce scientific evidence

that argues against their views with an almost religious fervour).

However, several colleagues and I here at Cardiff

University feel that Pole-Shift Theory certainly has potential, and

would explain a lot of things (e.g. the sudden onset/end of ice

ages). We feel that there has been too much emphasis on

'gradualism' over 'catastrophism' over recent years leading to an

instant dismissal of theories, such as ECD (Earth-Crust

Displacement), without first considering the evidence (as in most

things, the truth of earth processes probably lies somewhere in

between extremes, in this case catastrophe and gradual change,

but the scientific world seems to swing from one extreme to the

other).

On the other hand, it seems that no-one can explain how

subducted plates and island chains (such as the Empereor

Seamount/Hawaii chain) can be reconciled with a catastrophic

geological event. Could it be that ECD occurs at a rate slow

enough to avoid shearing of subducted plates, but rapid enough to

be geologically instantaneous? Looking at a topographic map of

the Earth, you can see that the formation of island chains changes

direction (particularly in the case of the Emperor

Seamount/Hawaiian Islands). Can these direction changes be

correlated between chains? Could they be the result of an ECD

event causing the general direction of plate motion to change

(resulting in the island chain forming in a different direction as it

moves over the mantle plume)? As far as I know, no-one has

thought why these plate motions change direction. I'm not sure

how any of this fits in with Ellenberger's point ("Top Ten Reasons

Why Velikovsky is Wrong" number 4) that the flora and fauna of

Hawaii was not disrupted 3500 yrs BP, as you'd expect from such

a global catastrophic event. But have any of these ECD events

been accurately dated? (ie. could the flora and fauna have been

disrupted at other times in the geological record of Hawaii (he only

cites 3500 BP)). What would such an event look like in the

geological record? I don't have the answers to any of this, only more questions.

Anyone?

Jason Davies

E-Mail: daviesjr@cf.ac.uk

Department of Earth Sciences

University of Wales, Cardiff