Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-05
NORTH POLE MOVES
7 INCHES YEARLY
"Top ofWorId" Coming Down
Toward America, Research
Council Reports.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

The North Pole iE moving South.
At the rate Of approximately Z inches
year the theoretical top of the world
is shifting towards the Arctic Coast of
North America.
The cause of this shift is unknown.
according to a bulletin just issued by
the National Research Council here, but
it aSsuredly is real after all corrections
have been made fol- observational errors.
From 1900 to 1917, says w. D. Lambert
of the United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey this movement of the Pole was
southwark along the 81st meridian west.
Then 1t seemed to shift eastward and
since has been followed along the 40th
and 57th meridians Such a movement
might be accounted for, he says, on
the basis of some slight change in the
shape of the earth originating in the in
terror which would change the polarity
of that body.
Fails TO Account for Glacial Age.
Efforts have been made, Lambert saws,
10 explain the phenomena of the great
ice ages as due to movements southwark
Of the North Pole, thus changing the
temperature by few degrees and allow
ing for an accumulation of ice over most
of the present temperate zone. But
when errors of observation have been
corrected, he points out the actual
movement discernable at present is too
small to have produced such effects in
the time during which they transpired
Thus in 10000 years, at the present
rate, he points out, the pole would have
come southwark only about a mile, and
the effect on climate would have been
negligible. 1t is only approximately
100000 years since the last advance of
the Ice. Moreover, the ice appears to
have spread almost at the same time
over North America, Europe and Asia
The theory has been, he explains, that
the pole is swinging like a pendulum,
first down one side of the world and
then the other. But, he says, I'VE have
no assurance that even this slow,
quaSi-secular displacement existed in
the past nor that it will continue in
the future"
Thus, although the pole can be
shown to be moving, Lambert says,
probably some other explanation will
be necessary for such great changes in
climate as were responsible for semi
tropical flora in Greenland in the dis
tant past.
Sphere Theory Ancient.
The Research Council bulletin on the
shape and size of the earth shows con-
clusively that the idea of a spherical
rather than a fiat earth was commonly
accepted in fifteenth century Europe,
and that when Columbus sailed west
ward he had no fears of dropping over
the edge into empty space. The concept
of a spherical earth. 1t points out, was
held by Aristotle and other Greek phil
oSophers.
1T is sometimes said" the bulletin
states, that the men of the Middle
Ages believed the earth to be fiat and
that Columbus proved 1t to be round.
No doubt ignorant men of the Middle
Ages, and of other times as we'll be-
lieved 1t to be flat, but the idea of the
sphericity of the earth never had died
out among the learned. In the thir-
tenth and fourteenth centuries 1t may
be considered as the generally accepted
doctrine among the learned. 1t is a
fundamental part Of the scheme of
Dante's Divine Comedy"
Columbus nearly two centuries later
took the idea for granted. His chief
point was that, assuming small figures
for its most probable circumference
and assuming further the great east
ward extent of Asia, which it was easy
to exaggerate from the accounts of land
travellers so that Asia would wrap it
self pretty we'll around this small world
of ours, the distance westward from
Western Europe to Eastern Asia could
not be very great, and that Asia easily
could be reached by sailing west"
Oceans ION Slope"
The Pacific Ocean Is higher" than
the Atlantic, and both oceans along
the American coasts appear to slope
upward from south to north, the re-
port reveals. Comparison of points on
the Pacific and Atlantic coasts show
that the sea level of the former ranges
around half a meter higher than the
latter. Sea level on the west of the
ISthmuS of Panama Is a slight fraction
of a meter higher than on the east
coast. Portland, Me-, sea level is
slightly higher than that at Galveston,
and at Seattle 1t is more than half a
meter higher than at San Diego.
Moreover says the report, "a rise of
mean sea level from south to north
has been noticaA on the east and west
coasts Of EnsA9A and Scotland, and